Bypassed Amp Gauge

[SierraJoe]

I got around to bypassing the amp gauge today. Last week when starting up the Clipper it died and I could observed a burnt electrical smell. I suspected the amp gauge. As I was disconnecting wires, I noticed that there was a 20 amp circuit breaker connected to the black wire amp post with a small gauge wire going to a harness connected to a relay on the back of the instrument circuit board. The connection on the relay plugged into the headlight switch. Turns out the wire supplies power to the tail lights and marker lights. I ended up removing the circuit breaker and splicing the wire from the relay into a 12 volt wire of the same gauge that powers the light on my external temperature gauge. Once everything was put back together, the RV started right up and the side lights and marker lights worked fine. The previous way it was setup looked very Mickey Mouse to me.  I kept the wire connected to the relay, but didn't feel safe splicing the wire from the relay into the 10 gauge with so many amps running through it so that was my thought on choosing another power source. I choose connecting it to the wire powering my external temp gauge. I can tell someone in the past had made some changes to the wiring into the instrument cluster, so my first thought was someone had changed the connection to the marker lights. Looking at the service manual, I saw this was the original configuration for the Dodge B300 van and not unique to the RV conversion. I'm curious why the the connection was not through the welded splice like the diagram shows for most old Mopars. I ordered on Amazon a USB charger that plugs into the cigarette lighter that monitors volts to replace the amp gauge.

[SierraJoe]

Volt meter came in today and when I plugged it in and started the RV, it was overcharging and reading between 18 and 19 volts. That would explain why I had to replace the two year old battery when I bought the RV last May. It had a new alternator installed two years ago but the voltage regulator looks fairly old. I disconnected the voltage regulator and when I started the RV, it was not charging. I'm going to assume the voltage regulator is bad. I'll pick one up after work tomorrow and see if that fixes the problem. Hopefully I haven't damaged the battery. Luckily I've only been out on two short trips since I bought the RV.

[austech360]

My Clipper has the same issue! I've been researching it.. I guess if the wiring is old and has voltage drop, the VR will see low voltage, and increase the charging voltage to compensate, or I guess these things just fail and start doing wonky things. With a multimeter, on the 20K ohms setting, it should read 1.75 If it's too high. it will output low voltage, if it's too low, it will output high voltage. I think I have that right. It might be the opposite, but this way makes the most sense.