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Mad Electrical upgrade except....

Neal Zimmerman

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OK, so I am going to do the Mad electrical ammeter bypass on my 65 coronet. I have read the MAD article several times , but nowhere in it does it mentioned how afterwards you might REPLACE the ammeter with a voltmeter. Can you just plug it in to the old ammeter black/red leads instead of splicing them together?
Thanks, Neal
 
The ammeter is in series and completes the circuit.
You must eliminate the ammeter by closing the connection.
A voltmeter is used between ground and the ammeter connections (that you shorted together).
 
Voltimeter must be hooked up to a keyed source, not the ammeter connection.
 
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The existing red and black wires must either be bolted or crimped together and insulated well. Then just pick a hot tap in your fuse box for the hot wire for your new volt gauge.
 
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Isn't an amp-meter gauge different than a voltmeter gauge?
 
Isn't an amp-meter gauge different than a voltmeter gauge?
Yes, they are different gauges. An ammeter measures current, in other words power or flow of electricity. A voltmeter measures the voltage. (For those not familiar with electricity, think of a water hose. The flow of water is like current, whereas the pressure of the water is like voltage.)

And as stated above, ammeter goes in series on the main power feed, whereas the voltmeter goes between the power feed and ground.
 
OK, so I am going to do the Mad electrical ammeter bypass on my 65 coronet.
Why?
There are some serious flaws in the pretext given in that article to perform this blanket ammeter by-pass on every Chrysler product ever made. The Article is specifically targeting later truck plastic framed ammeters. The description as a “full current load type” ammeter is not accurate.

Do the bulkhead Packard terminal charge circuit by-pass first, the weakest link in the original design by far.
IIRC ’65 should have screw terminal charge circuit pass-throughs at the firewall. Doesn’t get better than that, again what issue are you trying to address?
 
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Why?
There are some serious flaws in the pretext given in that article to perform this blanket ammeter by-pass on every Chrysler product ever made. The Article is specifically targeting later truck plastic framed ammeters. The description as a “full current load type” ammeter is not accurate.

Do the bulkhead Packard terminal charge circuit by-pass first, the weakest link in the original design by far.
IIRC ’65 should have screw terminal charge circuit pass-throughs at the firewall. Doesn’t get better than that, again what issue are you trying to address?
I allmost was to proceed with this same reply... but decided to pass over this time LOL
 
So now I am even more confused . Are you guys saying that the bypass thing is not necessary at all for a 1965 coronet. I am trying to avoid what the article seems to threaten will happen eventually, bulk head connector meltdown, possible fire , etc>
Neal
 
can someone tell me what the "bulkhead Packard terminal charge bypass" is?
And what does IIRC mean?
Neal
 
IIRC, “If I recall correctly”. 1966 was the year Chrysler moved to a full “click together” bulkhead connection. The high current charge circuit in the bulkhead used “Packard” connections/terminals. They were never intended to handle this current and have failed at a very high rate from very early on. The “Mad Electrical” article addresses this problem as well as the miss-information about ammeters, describing ways to by-pass the bulkhead on these two circuits, ’66 and later. The ’65 should have screw terminals on these two pass-throughs, not nearly prone to failure under normal conditions.

Do some searching here for past ammeter discussions, plenty of past posts on this subject.
 
I thought the full packard setup change was made on 64 being 63 the last year for the screw in tab for the ammeter conections? I was emailing with Ron here couple of years ago about his setup. He has a 63 Fury and when I was searching info those years about diagrams, pretty sure I found that difference between 63 and 64 diagrams.
 
So now I am even more confused . Are you guys saying that the bypass thing is not necessary at all for a 1965 coronet. I am trying to avoid what the article seems to threaten will happen eventually, bulk head connector meltdown, possible fire , etc>
Neal

Everything depends of nature of your resto. Some upgrades are adviced, like the bulkhead bypass or parallel path and alternator upgrade, and of course MANTENIENCE ( yes electricals needs a deep checking after 60 years of use and abuse, just like brakes, engine, body... ) but the ammeter bypass per se is not mandatory at all. You need to understand how the system works first, what use your car will get and take your own conclusions.

The ammeter bypass is a "gospel choir" 60-70% of the ppl sings without even know why is "needed" or how it works

The MAD electrical article as mentioned is wrong at several statements the say. Not just what 72RoadrunnerGTX mentioned, but the statement about the main splice being moved outside the car. That's not really true.
 
So now I am even more confused . Are you guys saying that the bypass thing is not necessary at all for a 1965 coronet. I am trying to avoid what the article seems to threaten will happen eventually, bulk head connector meltdown, possible fire , etc>
Neal
If your 65 has the same style bulkhead as later models, then yes I think it is a wise conversion. I have done the MAD conversion on 5 cars now, actually the last 2 are a variant of it. The MAD version gets rid of the heavy current going through the weak connections in the bulkhead and eliminates the amp gauge. Add a voltmeter.
Nacho has another method. He likes to keep the amp gauge, but does remove most all the heavy current from going through the bulkhead. Both ways work and are far better than the original setup.
I have seen pics of to many melted amp gauges and when I was a kid my Grandpas 70 Satellite burned from a dash fire. I was young and don't remember if it was the gauge or bulkhead. Regardless, it spooked me enough to do the conversion on all my cars later in life.
Here is a bunch of discussion. There are sublinks to both Nacho's and MAD conversions in it.
https://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum/threads/why-bypassing-the-ammeter-is-a-good-idea.137951/
 
Actually is not my method, but what Chrysler made on fleet cars. And lot of dealer jobs like that made later, as 72RoadrunnerGTX personally made working at dealers.

My credits are just on float this as a solution on several boards against the ammeter ( without a real reason ) bypass job everybody makes just like seals clapping LOL. Upgrade the alt and make this bulkhead bypass go together to get a better eletrical performance.

Ammeter can live safelly with this as far everything is propperly sourced
 
I thought the full packard setup change was made on 64 being 63 the last year for the screw in tab for the ammeter conections? I was emailing with Ron here couple of years ago about his setup. He has a 63 Fury and when I was searching info those years about diagrams, pretty sure I found that difference between 63 and 64 diagrams.
IIRC, there was some flip flopping going on for ’64, returned to the screw terminals in ’65 only to go back to the full Parkards in ’66. The ’65 Coronet should have this bulkhead connector.
65 bulkhead conn.jpg
 
So now I am even more confused . Are you guys saying that the bypass thing is not necessary at all for a 1965 coronet. I am trying to avoid what the article seems to threaten will happen eventually, bulk head connector meltdown, possible fire , etc>
Neal
The ammeter is a good gauge. The only issues with it can be the cardboard insulators. But if connections are tight and insulators in good shape there isn't going to be an issue with it.

The big issue with these cars is the bulkhead connectors. The thick black and thick red wires bring current into and out of the interior so all of that current goes through Packard connectors. When those connectors corrode or get loose it creates high resistance = high heat. Very bad. So the best cure is to eliminate the Packard type connectors and run a solid wire through the bulkhead in its place.
 
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