amp gauge 1955 Oldsmobile 88

[Guest]

I purchased a Painless wiring kit and rewired my Olds. I did not convert my electrical system to a altenator, but kept the generator and regulator. All the circuts work. My problem is that, under any draw (when the dome light is on for example) the amp gauge goes to a hard discharge. I had a spare amp gauge and replaced it in the insturment cluster, the same thing happens. I purchased a new SW amp gauge, hooked it up and it operates as expected. When the dome light is on it shows a small negative draw, and when the is engine running and revved up the amp gauge shows a charge. In the shop manual under INSTRUMENT PANEL AMMETER it talks about a shunt type ammeter, and only 10% approx. of the generator output goes through the ammeter, the gauge reads as though the full generator output were going through it. I am open for suggestion on things to check or is there a inline shunt I could purchase?

Thanks in advance for your help.

gallagher

[another old car]

gallager

welcome to aaca forum

lets see if I can guess at this

you talked about inside light and amp gauge

one thing about generators is they get weak over time

they also dont make much amps at a idle

are headlight dim while car is idling

do lights sort of lightly dim with turn signals

if any of the above is happening have the generator rebuilt

if this car is a driver and not a aaca show car - I myself would change over to a one-wire alternator - they produce more amps at idle and more amps as a unit

63amps to 109amps . a 63amp would be a better choice

did change on older jeep - and it only had a 36 amp alternator

hope this helps