Bad Amp Meter / Red Fuse box wire

[LittleRed]

I am new to 311 and apologize if this is not in the right forum. "Little red" (1970, 1600) was not turning over and electrical problems are not my area of expertise. 2 questions:
1) Has anyone ever had an amp meter go out? And if so, what are some options to determine / address?
2) Should the thin red wire going into the glove fuse box be connected to the bottom center screw?

I bypassed the amp meter (battery to ignition) and the car started. Have not yet taken off the dash but have access to the gages and thought I would get some advice before reducing the car to a pile of parts. In the process of diagnosing, somehow the radio no longer works - hence my need to reach out.

Thanks,
Steve

[Habitat.pat]

welcome to the site. Our ammeters are jokingly called fuses that protect the rest of the wiring harness. You do have several options for repair or replacement. You can either find a replacement ammeter and install it, you can send it to Jon Frampton in California who rebuilds them and restores our gauges. You do also have the option of converting from an ammeter to a volt meter, Jon also does that work.

I’m not familiar with the late-model cars so I cannot help you with the red wire in the fuse box but there are plenty of other folks on here that can.

Peace,
Pat

[dads311]

Hey Steve, welcome. You now have the perfect opportunity to increase your knowledge of electrical problems and trouble shooting, LOL. The ammeters in these cars are just like a fusible link and once blown need to be repaired or replaced, so yours is not uncommon. The Tech Wiki and search will be very important to you as you continue with this little car.

As you found bypassing the ammeter allows you to start the car, so for now a 30 amp fuse or a resetting circuit breaker can be used in place of the ammeter until you can either get yours fixed, or replaced with a volt meter. As for the thin red wire, I would check and make sure it isn't grounding out before connecting it.

Curtis, on this site, is one of the gurus on electrical in these cars. You can find electrical schematics in the tech wiki to help trace wires and where they go. Look here: http://www.311s.org/PDFs/1969-70%20Dats ... 20rev9.pdf . What I did for mine is printed it like a poster, it's on 4 sheets of paper, covered it in clear contact paper and put it up on the wall in the shop.

Continue to ask questions, there is an abundance of knowledge here and you will get an answer, in fact I am sure somebody with more experience in the later cars will help you out. There are a lot of roadster owners in your neck of the woods who will surely come to your aid.

Mike

[Bwk2000]

Welcome.

Simplified late model Fuse Box layout courtesy of CURTIS:

http://kendo-usa.org/datsun/68%20fusebox.pdf

[LittleRed]

Thank you all for your help, I really appreciate it!

Steve

[spyder]

If it is blown you could replace it with a voltmeter...
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=15556#p122713
Or if not, I have the ammeter this mod replaced.

[Curtis]

1970 so he needs this one. I forgot to add to the library.

http://www.kendo-usa.org/datsun/6970%20fusebox.pdf

[Curtis]

But wait, there's more.

http://www.kendo-usa.org/datsun/datsun_ ... _69_70.pdf

http://www.kendo-usa.org/datsun/datsun_ ... _69_70.pdf

[Gregs672000]

Man, you guys have no idea how great this site is... I've recently been on a few others, and the response and level of knowledge is just unsurpassed. Just sending my appreciation to you all!