Ammeter gets hot

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My ammeter in my 1929 coupe gets hot when the motor runs but otherwise seems to work all right. Could it be defective? Other possibilities?

[Marshall V. Daut]

Check the tightness of the two nuts on the backside. If loose, this will cause the face of the ammeter to heat up.
Marshall

[Kurt in NJ]

If it has steel nuts/ washers and they are rusty, corroded can also cause poor connections that get hot----- and the internal connections between the head of the bolts and the shunt can get tarnished--- on mine I soldered the heads to the shunt, now ammeter cool

My friend has a 36 packard and it came with every kind of twilight bulb, regular, led, halogen, the previous owner Wes trying to get bright lights--- 4 volts to the rear lights, I traced it to the ammeter, the old nuts were used over---- 4 new nuts and now bright lights,

[Bill G]

You definitely want to clean the connections if they are corroded and tighten the nuts. Also check for bad crimp-on connectors. The fact that it is hot points more to the connections than to the ammeter itself.


A bad connection creates a voltage drop and so if you have a stock generator, the generator will try to compensate for that drop and put out more voltage. In real bad cases, the generator will put out so much that it can burn out the light bulbs, so you should really check the connections.

[SeaSlugs]

also last i heard/saw the studs sticking out the back are just pressed into the thin brass strip on the face. Could be making a poor connection - alot of people solder them to the strip to make a GOOD connection.

Cant wait till someone produces a good repo meter...

[Bill G]

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Originally Posted by SeaSlugs

Cant wait till someone produces a good repo meter...

Amen to that!

[Bob Bidonde]

Alternator with a 20 A Ammeter will make the ammeter hot.

[larrys40]

Make sure it’s not one of the aluminum units . They are junk. Make sure the inner nut underneath the thumb nuts are tight .if not that will cause an issue as well. Yes, hoping we get a better reprieve ammeter down the road. Pay the bucks and put in a good original. But again all nuts and connections there mut be checked for tightness
Larry