I have been letting my girl drive the swinger to work. It is pretty reliable, but has lots of personality if you know what I mean.

Yesterday she warmed it up and started doing a k turn to get out of the parking lot at work when everything went dead. I assumed a fusable link died or maybe a bad connection at the battery. It was bad timing because she had to be home to put a roast in the oven for company and I was a half hour away covered in dot3 at my buddies house. I tried a couple things and ended up pushing it into a parking spot. Uphill.

It turns out power was going to the ammeter but not from the ammeter. some jiggling revealed the left side (closer to the edge of the dash) terminal is loose (not the connection, the whole threaded piece). With the column dropped and the dash popped out I hooked the negative terminal back up on the battery and jiggled the ammeter terminal- got some power into the harness.

I ended up throwing a 10g butt crimp connector in there to bypass the ammeter. I like having an ammeter, but it isn't worth the risk of fire or more breakdowns with her driving.

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madam im adam

You don't have to choose either having an ammeter or having a reliable electrical system. And no, I'm not talking about the hack-azz "solutions" offered at the (chevy-head) Mad Electric site. I much prefer the clean and technically correct ideas and components from R/T Engineering. They can rework stock ammeters to handle up to 70 amps efficiently, and they can convert stock ammeters into voltmeters (complete with a new gauge face that looks like factory equipment). They also sell a really good electronic instrument cluster voltage limiter. Their website's got a bunch of really good info on it, but you have to mouse around awhile to find it; the organisation isn't completely obvious. For example, I know there's a pic of one of their voltmeter conversions somewhere on the site, but I can't find it at the moment! Be sure to see this page. They actually have intelligent people who actually answer the phone, so if you get fed up trying to find what you want on the site, call them.

I used their electronic limiter on my '71 Dart, and now since I need to go in the dash of my '73 to replace a dead temp gauge, I figured I'd beef up the ammeter in prep for swapping on a late-model alternator. Should've called RTE before I bought a good used ammeter off eBay intending to send it into them for upgrade then swap it in, for two reasons:

1. The eBay seller (finally) sent me the wrong ammeter. It's a '76-only A-body ammeter, which is an external-shunt type unit. I could swap it into my '73, but I'd have to create an external shunt on the engine side of the firewall, of the correct capacity to make the ammeter read correctly.

2. RTE informed me when I did call them that they have upgraded A-body ammeters for sale on the shelf, either with good used/cleaned-up faces or with newly-restored/reprinted faces. $75 or $99, respectively. I'm buying one of the $75 items today.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Thanks.

I am broke and putting my wrenching energy elsewhere for a while but that seems like a great option for later.

Kevin

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madam im adam