Hello All,
I installed a voltmeter the other day and thought that maybe some of
you could benefit from my experiences.
I bought a cheapo ~16 dollar 2'' voltmeter from grand auto. The
brand name is SunPro. It comes with the little dashboard mounting kit.
Using the
screws provided I mounted it under the dash to the right. It can easily be
seen through the spokes of the steering wheel.
You have to connect it to a power source that is on when the key is in
the acc and on position. The two fuses in the upper left of my fuse box
(late model) fit this bill. I grounded it to the radio chasis. I might change
this but this was the easist, closest good ground. The gauge also comes with
a light that can be hooked into the exsisting dash light circuit. I have
not done this yet but it doesnt look too hard, just splicing a couple of
wires.
With a good handheld voltmeter I checked the volts at the battery and
at the gauge connection. I lose about 2 tenths of a volt. The gauge seems to
be reading pretty accurately,(by comparing with my voltmeter).
Here's what I learned. My fancy one wire 100 amp alt does not self
excite till the rpm's hit 4000. Then it puts out full voltage ~14.8V all the
way down to about 1000rpm. It decreases here but still puts out a little bit.
If I leave the car idling at ~600ish rpm the alt seems to turn off but then if
I rev it a little bit, not to 4000rpm but just like 1500rpm I get full
voltage back. With my higer power (is that a religous reference??) head
lights on
and my 110watt driving lights on and the heater blower on high the needle
barely dips but stays above 14V's. So, over all I am happy with the
performance of my alt. Now lets see if it can handle the 350W stereo system
Reccomendations: Don't buy a cheapo voltmeter. While mine seems to be
accurate enough its range is stupid. The gauge reads from 6-16 volts when I
am really only concerned with the range of say 11-15 volts. I want an
expanded scale so I can tell if its 12.6 volts or 13.1 volts. With the
compressed scale you can really only tell if you are below 12V's about
13V's or 14V's or above. Which is fine if you just want to know if the
alt. is keeping up with the loads or not, but I want more information..
Maybe a digital voltmeter ala JCW would be better. That, or I could
buy a $45 buck autometer gauge (or should that be gouge??)
Daniel 69 2000
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