Alternator gauge is smoking
This is a the basic scheme of a standard 1972 Valiant.
Using your finger follow the line from the battery positive terminal.
Everything connected to the battery positive is hot.
Color of the wire does not matter. Up to the switches, everything connected to the battery is at battery voltage.
The ammeter shows zero because no electrons are moving. They're just very excited and ready to move when a path to ground becomes available.
Voltage should be the same everywhere that is connected to battery positive. You can measure it at the alternator 'Batt' terminal or at the fusebox, it doesn't matter.
If you think of current like a river of electrons flowing, with all the switches off, the river is blocked. Pressure behind the blockage is the same everywhere. That pressure is the voltage.
The ammeter is not a switch, up through '75, its just a U shaped metal plate that creates a small magnetic field when the electrons are moving. The magnetic field deflects the needle.
This is a the basic scheme of a standard 1972 Valiant.
Using your finger follow the line from the battery positive terminal.
Everything connected to the battery positive is hot.
Color of the wire does not matter. Up to the switches, everything connected to the battery is at battery voltage.
The ammeter shows zero because no electrons are moving. They're just very excited and ready to move when a path to ground becomes available.
Voltage should be the same everywhere that is connected to battery positive. You can measure it at the alternator 'Batt' terminal or at the fusebox, it doesn't matter.
If you think of current like a river of electrons flowing, with all the switches off, the river is blocked. Pressure behind the blockage is the same everywhere. That pressure is the voltage.
The ammeter is not a switch, up through '75, its just a U shaped metal plate that creates a small magnetic field when the electrons are moving. The magnetic field deflects the needle.