redblackred

Read the article about how this battery gauge for 63 corvette is not a regular ammeter. Just had all my gauges redone at corvette specialties Maryland Do not want to screw things up. How should I wire this up. I do not understand what a shunt is. Can I put the 1 amp fuse they talk about anywhere in the system. Thanks Al..

babbah

Behind your dash there should be a 2 prong connector that plugs in only one way to the ammeter aka "battery" gauge.
Each wire has 12v on it. One of the wires is from the horn relay 12v bus bar and the other wire comes from the 12v starter terminal.
It's really a galvanometer that simply measures the differential voltage between these 2 points.
The shunt is actually the length of these 2 wires that are in in the wiring harness. There is no physical "shunt" device in the harness. A shunt just provides the amount of resistance that is a specific value so that the gauge reads accordingly. Think of the shunt as a current sensor built into the wiring for your battery gauge circuit.
So your battery gauge is measuring the differential voltages between your electrical systems load vs the actual battery voltage.
The needle goes left when a load is placed on the system like when you start the engine.
Then the needle goes right as the battery is charging. when the battery is fully charge your gauge needle should be almost straight up to the middle point of the gauge.
If you wish you could put fuses on these wires to protect the gauge.

Frankie the Fink

What 1 amp fuse ??

jim lockwood

The amount of current which actually passes through the '63 "Ammeter" is probably on the order of 1/100 to 1/10 of the Ampacity of that 1 Amp fuse, assuming you are wanting to put that fuse in the wiring to/from the Ammeter.

What this means is that if there were a catastrophic wiring failure which tried to send a large current through the meter circuit, the meter would likely pop, thereby protecting the 1 Amp fuse.

Jim

Frankie the Fink

hence my question.
To the OP: just wire the refurbished gauges like they were originally and don't overthink things...

babbah

That's why starting with the 1967 models GM installed fuse links on the battery gauge wires along with various other fuse links to protect the wiring.

Jim_C

The shunt is the #10 red wire that runs from the starter terminal to the horn relay buss bar. The meter displays the voltage drop across that wire.
CUL Jim

Frankie the Fink

Correct answer - so, inotherwords, again, just reinstall the ammeter gauge the way it came out and you will be fine...

As mentioned the plastic harness connector only goes on one way.

So easy a caveman could do it

redblackred

Frankie. Thank you for the information. Someone before me installed a after market amp gauge and of course cut the connector off. If I hook up the 2 wires and hit the starter and the needle shows a discharge I should be fine. If the needle shows a charge I should be able to just switch the wires around. Let me know if this makes sense. Thanks Al..

Frankie the Fink

Don't even have to hit the starter just turn on the headlights - less stressful...when properly hooked up you should see a healthy negative deflection on the ammeter...

redblackred

Thanks for the info. Someone before me installed a after market gauge and cut off the connector. Any idea which wire goes where. Thanks Al..

buns

Not the best picture, but should help.



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redblackred

This seems the only way I could thank you for the picture It helped a lot. Thanks again Al...