install analog voltmeter & ammeter gauges

[wflgeorge]

I'm looking for tips / advice from members who have knowledge and experience installing analog voltmeter & ammeter gauges. I have a 2000 Accord.

[BNR34_V-SpecII]

what's wrong with your original gauges?

[AccordCodger]

Really? The 2000 HAS a voltmeter AND ammeter?? I'd be surprised to hear that.

[wflgeorge]

Originally Posted by AccordCodger

Really? The 2000 HAS a voltmeter AND ammeter?? I'd be surprised to hear that.

This car (2000 Accord V6 LX) came with neither voltmeter or ammeter. I decided that it should have voltmeter and ammeter gauges after experiencing a few run-down/dead batteries (without warning) and an alternator replacement. Besides the inconvenience of a dead battery, I'm concerned about other drivetrain systems damage and safety problems caused by low voltage.

From this forum, I'm just looking for installation tips or advice, if anyone has some experience with installing these relatively simple, inexpensive gauges.

[mpumas]

"The addition of a voltmeter is pretty easy. You can hook a meter across the battery terminals with the meter inside the passenger compartment. Adding an amp meter is a lot harder. If you want to read this meter in the passenger compartment you will need to place a shunt in line with the battery after the starter and power bus, and read the voltage drop. A shunt is a piece of metal which has very low resistance. The drop of voltage across this resistance can be related to current. Analog meters do not work well for this. I would suggest the use of a digital meter which will easily read millivolts/volts. In old cars the meter was placed the between the batterty/starter and the alternator so you could tell if the alternator was sending power to the battery or the car systems was drawing from the battery. On my car, the positive lead on the battery has two wires coming off it. The large lead goes to the starter. The other lead is the one where you want to place the shunt.