amp meter wires

...I believe the Black wire goes to the 'Field' of the Alternator. That's how the Battery gets Charged Up. You can't eliminate them! (I) Bolted the Wire ENDS together (1/4" SS) and covered the connection with 2 Layers if INDUSTRIAL (Thick) Shrink Tubing, because that connection is due to get HOT!

MJ

I believe the battery hot cable runs to the hot side of the starter solenoid in the engine bay.  There is  a large hot red wire connected there that runs back into the passenger compartment and connects to one side of the ammeter.  The other side of the ammeter then runs back to the Alternator as MJ already said.   I would simply bolt them together and wrap them well.  

The wiring diagrams are out there on The Pantera Place I believe.

Here is the wiring harness on a workbench.  The black arrow points to the thick wires joined to eliminate the AMP meter.  In this case they were joined to test the harness.  Going to the right in the photo leads to the engine compartment where the black wire connects to the alternator.  I can't recall where the red wire terminates to charge the battery.

In my humble opinion, it is best just to join the wires under the dash.  I spent a good amount of time restoring this harness.  It had a lot modifications that I had to undo.  It would be extra work for someone down the road to restore the AMP meter if the wires were cut.

Personally, I know that the ammeter can be a weak point but I prefer to keep it.

Its function is not the same as that of a voltmeter, it indicates precisely if the consumption of all the electrical receivers is higher than the energy supplied by the alternator and that the battery is discharging, or if on the contrary the alternator is sufficient to compensate for the consumption.

A voltmeter only indicates the voltage of the circuit and therefore the state of the battery which only gives an "indication" on the fact that the battery is discharging or not.
In addition, it is very easy to add a voltmeter.

Often the ammeter only fails because of poorly tightened or oxidized connections. If you take care to connect the wires carefully, there is no reason for it to fail.

It can also be "relieved" by installing a shunt, the indication it will provide will then be false in absolute value but it will still indicate the direction of the current and therefore whether the battery is discharging or not. This is what I will do since I will install a 100 A alternator and the ammeter is only designed for 70 maximum.

But everyone does as they want with their car.

I now recall that the red wire travels inside the thick bundle from the ammeter to the fuse pane and supplies power to those circuits.  All remaining power is then sent to the battery.

FYI: since the early 1980's, Pantera ammeters came from Veglia Borletti with a shunt between the terminals. It was a metal plate as opposed to a wire.

My reality seems to be the ammeter leaps around allot while charging for the first driving period ( 10-20minutes) and then flatlines when the battery is fully charged.

And then it does exactly the same after the next start. 

Is this what others have ? I certainly could not guess a charge amount from it.

At best more of a rough guideline that something might be  happening by the leaps per minute metric ....!

The original ammeters jumped back and forth until the shunts were installed across the terminals.  I replaced mine with a VDO ammeter which shows either positive charge or negative discharge with a very steady needle.  Lance Nist installed the shunt on my stock original gauge and it was steady during operation.  Your ammeter should not be "flatline" (which I assume you mean 0 +/-) if there is load on the system.  But I do remember that my stock gauge with the shunt barely moved one way or the other.  Hence my other reason for replacing it.

@panterapatt posted:

The original ammeters jumped back and forth until the shunts were installed across the terminals.  I replaced mine with a VDO ammeter which shows either positive charge or negative discharge with a very steady needle.  Lance Nist installed the shunt on my stock original gauge and it was steady during operation.  Your ammeter should not be "flatline" (which I assume you mean 0 +/-) if there is load on the system.  But I do remember that my stock gauge with the shunt barely moved one way or the other.  Hence my other reason for replacing it.

This is because the shunt was poorly calibrated.
With a correct shunt the ammeter should vary significantly but without reaching its maximum capacity.

It is normal for the charging current to be higher after a start, since the starter has discharged the battery a little. Then when the battery has regained its full charge, the alternator regulates the energy it produces according to the load of the different receivers and the ammeter is therefore very close to zero.
It is only when consumption is higher than the maximum power of the alternator that it indicates a negative current, which means that the battery is discharging and that it is necessary, if possible, to reduce consumption by switching off non-essential equipments.

With my stock system (1973, L Model) I had a lot of needle movement before I improved the grounding of my engine and battery…

Once I added some extra grounds and cleaned up some of the electrical wiring, my ammeter was more predictable, and well behaved.

I also have a separate volt meter added into the wiring system, mounted on the dash.

Thanks Rocky - Good hint !!  I will go over the ground points.

The original alternator with the electromagnetic regulator also makes the needle jump a lot. It is much more stable with a modern alternator with electronic regulator.

@stevebuchanan posted:

I now recall that the red wire travels inside the thick bundle from the ammeter to the fuse pane and supplies power to those circuits.  All remaining power is then sent to the battery.

Correct answer 👍

I also want to Point out just like @rocky did, that an additional voltmeter is a very, very good idea.

Like you can see on this picture I connected the wires backwards on the Ammeter… it was showing charging, While I was actually discharging the battery … Another mistake I made - corrected since.

Secondly, I bought a voltmeter on Amazon and just installed it in one of the Surrounds of One of the five New not working headlight switches… Nothing a Dremel can’t Adjust to fit. Once I had that installed I actually found that I had a short… It was up in the right fender under the headlight… Mega voltage drop… (meltage -) later another time I found that my voltage regulator wasn’t working either…

I did install the bridge on the back of the ammeter which, as previously was pointed out, dilutes the reading of the gauge.

Some of you know that I had quite some electric gremlins in my car… Most of them I did inherit when I bought the car and others…. Well, I have to say a couple  I may have  induced myself… But now everything is working absolutely everything.. and that little voltmeter is a very easy way to see if there’s anything wrong… ammeter It’s good too, but Just not as blatant.

also note my 100% reliable light switches… As I said… Nothing, a Dremel  cannot make fit… Well, almost…🤪