Anybody know how to wire an amp guage on a 24 volt system, I have the wiring diagram for the dozer, the only problem is, it was for a generator system and now its converted to a delco alternator. The alternator repair guy says he knows how to wire a volt meter but not sure how the amp guage is supposed to be done............exactly. The delco alternator needs only one battery terminal wired to a constant source so we wired it directly to the starter, that worked good, but now to wire in the guage to tell if its working or not. There are two terminals on the back of the guage and I have no idea where they go, any ideas would be appreciated, what we've tried so far is to wire the battery terminal on the back of the alternator through the guage, one wire going into the guage the other back out to the starter wire that comes from the battery, it worked for about an hour, then my alternator quit again, not sure if it caused damage to the alternator or if the alternator was having problems anyhow, my repair guy didn't know exactly what caused it. If we leave the alternator wired to the starter terminal and run one wire from the guage down to the same starter terminal what gets wired to the other terminal on the back of the guage? All the rest of my machines have volt guages and those are wired differently. Anybody know?
The way you have it wired up is normal for most ampmeters, in series with the alternator output wire. The biggest suggestion I could make is find a new alternator repairer. If they don't know how to wire up an ampmeter and don't have any suggestions on what caused failures, then I wouldn't have much confidence in them.
Ditto on this information. ^^^^^ You had it wired up correctly when your alternator quit working. Your second wiring method towards the end of your post won't work. When it was working was your ampmeter reading correctly or very high? Since your ampmeter is in series with the charging system a burnt out ampmeter can cause a no charging situation. There are also shunt type meters but I don't think this is what you have unless your meter was pegged which is why I was asking. A shunt type meter will also have smaller wires going to it instead of the larger alternator charge wire.
We've gone through several repair guys lately. When the guage was working it worked just like my semi's, it indicated higher at startup and after a few minutes it went back to just above the line between charging and disharging and stayed there while we ran it, after startup the second time it never moved and we've been jump starting ever since, back to another alternator shop, and he found a loose wire in the field I think he said, along with bad diodes, he said something about not sure what exactly killed the diodes, if it was indeed a shorted field or maybe something on the dozer that did it,he said the wire was loose but not touching anything at the time he took it apart and thus not shorting out, but to take it home and put it back on and give it a try, this time around nothing on the alternator would be to blame or even a possibility, we discussed the guage and also wiring delima and he stood silent for a minute then told me to take the guage off and bring it in for him to see firsthand before he'd say much of anything, but he was sure the alternator would charge fine if the guage wasn't hooked up and before I did hook it up to bring it in. I'm almost electrical illiterate, so bear with me, the terminals on the back of the guage look like any other guage, the needle didn't peg out, what happens if the guage is bad, will it damage the alternator or just not let the alternator charge the batteries? Is the guage for a generator system the same as an alternator system, nothing was hooked up when I bought the dozer, most wires were either cut, broken or not even there, the alternator wasn't even hooked up with any wires. Both shops I've used told me to hook the alternator directly to the starter and don't worry about the guage, I guess maybe thats what I should have done, it was working when we did that, but I want to know if its charging or not as we run the dozer. The dozer was 24 volt, I never changed that, someone before me put the alternator on in place of the generator and also damaged the harness and either unhooked everything or cut the wires or they broke off by themselves.
Picture it this way. You have a short wire going from the alternator to the starter, like the shops are suggesting. Cut that short wire and install an ammeter. Obviously you can't see the meter while operating so you extend the wires to the cab. That is really all you are doing by installing a meter in the dash. The alternator will not charge the battery if you have the ammeter disconnected because the wire from the alternator is not connected to the battery anymore. Connect those 2 wires together that were connected to the ammeter then your battery will charge without the meter being there. Instead of a short wire going from alternator to the battery you have a long wire now. If the circuit inside the ammeter is open then the battery won't charge and the meter will not work. If the circuit inside the meter is somehow touching the metal case then you could blow the diodes. Both of these cases are pretty rare and you can easily test the ammeter with an ohm meter. Measure across the terminals and you should read very close or zero ohms. Terminals to case should be totally open or megohms. Some things that can blow the diodes. A power wire shorting to ground, jump starting (although I have never seen this), reverse polarity of battery or jumper cables.
I agree ,one more thing what amp is your guage and what amp is your delco alt.?I have seen 20 amp gen. guages on 100 amp alts. cause this problem.
I basically agree w/ most of the above, but have some more info, and some advice I'm surprised nobody has given. Info: if the ammeter is installed in series w/ the alternator output line, it will only show the current the alternator is producing, but it will not show the current being used by accessories on the dozer when the alternator isn't producing. in order to read the acessory draw, the guage must be in the line that connects everything to battery, except the starter. If you don't care about measuring accessory draw, it will work in the alternator line. Now, my advice to you: throw that ammeter in the scrap bucket, and go give the parts store $30 for a 32v voltmeter. Hook the - terminal to a good ground, and the + terminal to something that is hot only w/ the switch on. If you hook it to something that is hot w/ the battery, it will kill your battery if the tractor sits long enough.
Thanks for the replies, mitch504 took your advice and went shopping today, actually for a new amp guage ended up buying a volt guage after three parts guys told me to throw my amp guage away and buy a volt guage instead, finally found a 32 volt one at a heavy equipment dealer, there are three terminals on the back of the guage, a negative terminal, a termianl I was told was the source of power to monitor, and a terminal or was told stood for ignition terminal. They told me to hook up the s terminal to the battery terminal on the back of the alternator, the ground terminal to the frame somewhere and the i terminal to the ignition switch thats only hot when the engine is running. Now I am confused somewhat, I asked it that won't drain the battery when the machine sits and he told me no it won't, I can't argue with him yet since I don't have the dozer put back together yet and try it out, does this make sense to anyone else, again I'm not too up on electrical stuff, but the batt terminal on the alternator is hot at all times.
The probably turns the gauge on so it won't run the battery down. You will know once you hook it up as the gauge should be dead even though it's hooked directly to the battery. Do you have an ignition switch? My CAT just has a battery master switch so if I were installing this gauge on mine I would just jumper the to the .
I was going to say that, O and W
This dozer has an ignition switch, but I don't think it has a master....................yet. I figured I'd hook the wire to the same wire that runs my hour meter. Anyone see why this won't work?