wilbur

I was hooking up my new fuse points (thank you franky) to my cigarette lighter, clock and battery gauge, everyhing was going great until I got to the battery gauge...I put the wire on the back of the amp gauge and started to tighten the nut, just when I thought, ok that's tight enough the stud started to spin with the nut @!&@.
While trying to get the wire off I must of moved the stud 1/2 to 3/4 of a turn.
I had to take the amp/battery gauge out of the dash and I found out that the nut closest to the amp gauge (not the outside nut that holds the wire on)was loose. I tighten the nut up and now the stud is perfectly fine.
My question is...
Do you think I broke the conection inside?
Do you think the gauge is damaged and how can I bench test it?

wombvette

Small 1.5 V battery, touch wires to the terminals from the battery, should drive the needle, then reverse, should go the other way. Don't hold it, just quickly touch.

wilbur

Tried a AA battery on the gauge and the needle moved, reversed the wires and the needle moved the other way.
Thank you very much wombvette now I can put it all back together.

Frankie the Fink

Great advice from wombvette. I doubt you hurt anything and its actually good you found the loose nut on the back of the ammeter. These old ammeters connections have the FULL current of the car running through them and need to be "bright and tight".