#10 wire refers to the AWG (American Wire Gauge) size of the conductor. For
example house wiring uses #14 AWG for 15 Amp service, or #12 AWG for 20 AMP
service (at 120 VAC). House wiring uses solid copper wire. I STRONGLY
recommend STRANDED wire for automotive use.
Reid
'79 Spitfire (original owner)
-----Original Message-----
From: Richard B Gosling [mailto:Gosling_Richard_B@perkins.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2000 2:21 AM
To: JeffreyLos; spitfires
Subject: Re: Wiring an ammeter
Jeff,
I'm not a total electrical guru, but since no-one else has answered your
post I
thought I'd pass on my thoughts.
The instructions sound reasonable to me. I'm not sure what is meant by a
#10
wire - maybe this is an American standard? Basically, the wires to and
from
the ammeter should not carry too much current - after all, you are
expecting
the reading to be 0 if all is as it should be. The wire should be capable
of
carrying the maximum current that will occur if either the alternator is
bust,
so your battery is being drained, or if your battery is flat and your
alternator is charging it - this is the sort of information you are after,
so
you don't want the wires to melt and the ammeter to be disconnected just as
it
starts to tell you something useful! Given that all the current drawn has
to
pass through one of three fuses, rated at ?? constant current (can't
remember
the value off the top of my head, you'll have to check it!), then your
wires
to and from the ammeter should be capable of carrying 3*?? without
over-heating or melting.
Yes, using a decent quality connector sounds much easier than splicing -
which
I always have doubts over, since you usually end up wrapping your final
join
in electrical tape, and then in a couple of years it starts to come off and
leave bare wire which can short out - and at this point it is not even fuse
protected, so you will have a nice meltdown and lots of smoke. Of course,
if
you use a decent heat-shrink sort of insulating material that is probably
OK,
but a connector capable of handling the max. current described above would
still be easier!
One major point, make sure that the ammeter is NOT carrying the current to
the
starter motor, as this will end up blowing practically every wire in the
system!
Hmm, just re-checked your post, and it doesn't mention wires going to the
fuse
box. Although I think that everything that goes to the fuse box goes to
the
ignition switch on the way, and you do mention a wire to the ignition, so I
guess that is OK.
I don't see any problem with taking the supply to the fuel and temp gauge
lights and using that to supply your ammeter light. If you have a dimmer
(my
1500 doesn't, but by the sounds of other peoples posts some cars do) then
the
same part-way dimmer setting will give a slightly dimmer light all round,
but
max. setting should still be the same.
Everybody please feel free to criticise my advice above - as I said I'm not
an
expert, just someone who has done a fair bit of fiddling about, I only
offer
what I can since (at least when the last digest was sent out) no-one else
seems to have volunteered any advice.
Richard and Daffy
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