So, I've been bugging Nacho and many others about the best way to use an ammeter with thicker wiring and bypassing the bulkhead, etc. -- I appreciate all of their help! But I also had an OER speedo fail after 90 miles so I really wanted to get that addressed since I had Redline redo my original speedo. Once I get a little more time, I'm going to do the formal bypass and find a decent OEM ammeter and put it back, with a voltmeter back under the dash. But for now, my Crackedback charge wire from B+ to the starter relay and a voltmeter conversion will be a great solution. I followed the example at http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php?topic=108698.0
and I’m actually very amazed at how well it turned out.
Here's what I used:
Autometer 2356 Voltmeter
Whitegauges.net Voltmeter decal
Original/OEM broken ammeter face
Seeing where others did their work made it fairly easy. I literally took the voltmeter apart, took some guitar pickup winding tape and wrapped it around the voltmeter coil -- just in case on this one. Then I removed the face from the broken OEM ammeter by drilling out the rivets. Trimmed the bottom off the the face and clipped off the needle at the bottom. It took a few tries to get the decal perfect and there are a few small divets under the decal no matter what I did. This will be inspiration to do everything correctly down the road. They actually almost lined up perfectly so I put the newer OER ammeter that lost its zero position in a box edge and put in the voltmeter next to it. I then used a dremel to lightly remove the bevel on the front of the voltmeter needle and I superglued the original needle to the voltmeter needle. I then used metal to plastic superglue on the voltmeter indicator dial to glue the face and lined them up. I put a wrench to hold it in place and let it dry. About an hour later I put grommets in the original holes, put in the new voltmeter and it all lined up with no mods. Hurray! I double checked with a 9 volt battery to get it to jump to the 9 position and it worked. Under the dash, I'm going to connect the ammeter wires together with a bolt and shrink-wrap for now.
I'm actually pretty amazed at how painless it was. The worst part was pulling the dash and the years of research about how to best keep my ammeter. If any of my mentors, helpers, etc over the years are reading this and frustrated that I gave in, I have not!
This is just a solution until I can rip the car apart.
and I’m actually very amazed at how well it turned out.
Here's what I used:
Autometer 2356 Voltmeter
Whitegauges.net Voltmeter decal
Original/OEM broken ammeter face
Seeing where others did their work made it fairly easy. I literally took the voltmeter apart, took some guitar pickup winding tape and wrapped it around the voltmeter coil -- just in case on this one. Then I removed the face from the broken OEM ammeter by drilling out the rivets. Trimmed the bottom off the the face and clipped off the needle at the bottom. It took a few tries to get the decal perfect and there are a few small divets under the decal no matter what I did. This will be inspiration to do everything correctly down the road. They actually almost lined up perfectly so I put the newer OER ammeter that lost its zero position in a box edge and put in the voltmeter next to it. I then used a dremel to lightly remove the bevel on the front of the voltmeter needle and I superglued the original needle to the voltmeter needle. I then used metal to plastic superglue on the voltmeter indicator dial to glue the face and lined them up. I put a wrench to hold it in place and let it dry. About an hour later I put grommets in the original holes, put in the new voltmeter and it all lined up with no mods. Hurray! I double checked with a 9 volt battery to get it to jump to the 9 position and it worked. Under the dash, I'm going to connect the ammeter wires together with a bolt and shrink-wrap for now.
I'm actually pretty amazed at how painless it was. The worst part was pulling the dash and the years of research about how to best keep my ammeter. If any of my mentors, helpers, etc over the years are reading this and frustrated that I gave in, I have not!
This is just a solution until I can rip the car apart.
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