Factory ammeter

Mike69cuda said
The amp meter is not really the weakest link. The two bulkhead connections that feed the amp meter are usually what goes first. In bypassing those connections, the amp meter gets bypassed a lot of the time. Lots of threads about it on here and lots of different opinions and solutions.

Yup.
And it depends on the year and model too.
Some years had better bulkhead arrangments for the main feeds than others.
For some car options the feed throughs went grommets instead of and/or in addition to the bulkhead connector.
1976 A-body has a remote shunt ammeter and its feeds are done differently.

One situation where the factory ammeters and wiring can have problems was high draw and high recharge options. Winches and plows fit in this catagory. Those things can suck current big time. Thats one reason they get wired direct on the battery. But then the battery needs recharging big time. So the ammeter gets no breaks during that sort of usage. That photo from the MAD website sure looks like its from a Dodge pickup.
edit: I see 67Dart273 already covered that.

Relevance to our A-bodies is this. When things like electric fuel pumps, fans, EFI are added to the car, they have potential to do the same thing.
Some of the problems could be reduced if these items were wired to the alternator side. But that can have its own drawbacks too.