1965 SS ammeter repair?

denson1932

Well Known Member
Working on a few parts from a basket case 1965 SS 2HT i am getting a little at a time...most of the car is inaccessible right now due to snow...i thought the ammeter needle was missing until i disassembled the quad gauge...the Ammeter needle is NOT broke or missing...it is stuck at 'maximum overfull DISCHARGE'...thinking a open circuit in the Charge circuit (used as a shunt resistor for the sensitive Ammeter??) caused way too much current thru the ammeter and pegged it a good one...should i apply gentile force to try to move the needle back to midpoint?

Today i got brave and nudged the needle, after moving it to the center it jumps over to the "Charge" position...so the needle is either at 'C' or 'way below D'....like it has some residual magnetism...i tried 'degaussing' it with my OLD color TV deguassing coil...no help. Anyone ever had a similar experience?
 
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Iowa 409 Guy

Well Seasoned Member
Supporting Member 15
i got it fixed! decided i had nothing to loose so i zapped it with my battery charger on 6V...about 5 hits brought it back to park at center of scale.

Wow. How the heck did you ever come up with that idea? Never would have thought of trying something like that working on a 12v system. Sounds like it worked.
 

denson1932

Well Known Member
Yup working fine now...if you read the description of ammeter here
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammeter

you can learn there is iron inside that might get magnetized by a huge current...like when the wire connection between alternator and battery is compromised so all the charge current goes thru the ammeter. FYI the Sears 6V/12V charger i used to zap it is only an 8 amp unit.
Oh also i am doing all this with meter on the workbench not in the vehicle. its a basket case!
 
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