Was wondering if anyone has put and amp gauge in place of the air gauge,if so how did you wire it..Can you just more or less break the power wire coming from the regulator that goes to the battery??

 

That depends on the intended use of the gauge.
If you want to monitor the current use of the bike,you would need to connect one end to the battery(ignition switch out) and the other to feed all of the loads(ignition.accessory,etc.) to register the current draw.

The voltage gauge is much simpler.
None of the current passes through the gauge.it only monitors the voltage available.If it drops below 12.6,your drawing more power than your charging system can supply while the ammeter will tell you how much current is being consumed in regards to the voltage available.

An ammeter without a voltage gauge is somewhat useless.
Together,they make a good team,

 

AMP Guage must be in series with the load/current draw...

Voltage is Parallel ..it's only "sampling"

 

A volt meter is going to give you more useful information than an amp meter, and you won't have to install a 4 gauge wire up in your batwing to get it to work.

I have oil temp and volt meters in the bottom holes.

I don't need to know the current draw, I need to know non running voltage, idle voltage, and voltage at 2K rpm's, and that will pretty much tell me if the electrical system is working properly

 

What started all this was,I went from a fuel injection bike and changed it to carb..Then later on the regulator went off,it had the big charging system 45 amp..Was told by local bike shop that I could put a 32 amp system for about what it cost for a 45 amp regulator..So what the hell I did...then started burning up stator,first one 150 mile,cause of that was a bad battery,put new battery in and stator,lasted 350 miles, now they say i need matching rotor to go with the 32 amp stator,was running 45amp rotor on the 32 amp stator other said it could be done..(myself dont think so)Right now waiting on parts..After smoking 2 stator Its time to do amp draw test, found on 1998 EFI ultra with motor not running amp draw was about 22 to 24 amp with switch on and all the lights,stereo and so on...My bike mostly led light front and back and all of the EFI stuff gone and CB..Has only lights stock gauges and sony stereo with two speakers.sould be able to run 32 amp system,just wanted to add amp gauge where I could really watch the system..Who really needs a airtemp gauge anyway, I know when its hot and cold outside..AMP gauge should be real time on whats going on with charging system..So back to wiring amp gauge up should go between the main hot wire feeding the ignition switch right with heavy wire...

 

You're right, nobody needs the air-temp gauge, but an oil-temp gauge is very useful in its place. Since an ammeter feeds all current through the gauge I would worry about it tripping a code in some way. I can't think of a specific reason it would do this, but it would worry me anyway.

 

Could see where you may get a code on a new bike,can also see where it may start a problem due to if the wire was the wrong size,due to heat from pulling amps..Guess no one has done this before as far as putting amp gauge in fairing...My bike is a 1997 ultra classic with no computer with SS carb.

 

Has anyone checked the amp draw on there bike with the motor not running,switch on, all the lights hazard light running, hitting the brakes, blowing the horn and the stereo turn up...I'm getting about 22 amps max...still wondering about putting the amp gauge..And it right to say that I can tie the amp gauge by breaking the main 12v wire that feeds the ignition switck??

 

I doubt that will give you the charging amps, just the draw amps. I would not want to have a 10 gauge stranded cable running up into my fairing and back.

As long as you are not popping fuses it doesn't matter how many amps you are drawing, so long as when you are off idle you get 13.8 volts and at idle you get 12.

I've been working on cars and bikes for 30 plus years, and the only time I ever use an amp meter is to see current draw for an accessory so I can pick wire and fuse sizes if I don't have the manufacturers info on the topic, or to chase down a parasitic draw that is draining the battery. Everything else I can get from voltage data.

 

To me, the best reason to have an ammeter between the regulator and the battery is that you can tell how much current is needed to keep your battery charged when the motor is running.

If your battery is going bad and has, say, a shorted cell, it will draw more current from the regulator. When it draws more current than the limit of the stator/regulator then something is going to fry. Even if it doesn't draw more than the system can provide, it will still put an unnecessary load on it, which could shorten the life of the stator/regulator.

Kind of like when you're charging a bad battery and the charger current output never drops to zero like a good battery should when it's charged up. The bad battery just keeps sucking current from the charger and never gets fully charged.

This is only an educated guess. I could just be full of it, as I'm not a mechanic or an electrician.