Which guage or both ?

Wylde1, before you praise Dan's knowledge of Mopar electrical systems so very highly, check the schematic on your car and see if you can find the "external (meter) shunt" that he's referring to. You won't, because Chrysler didn't use any "external shunt". That's why Mopar ammeters burn up when the connections are poor: because they have to carry so much current.

Let me cite chapter and verse on this, since I'm sure Dan will say I'm full of bull (he always does when anybody disagrees with him). In the schematic for my mid-70s model Dodge, the wires going to the ammeter are labeled "S1A-6RE" and "A1-6BK". Anybody with the slightest knowledge of Chrysler schematic nomenclature knows this means that one wire (wire no. S1A) is a 6-gauge red wire, and the other one (wire no. A1) is a 6-gauge black wire. (10 gauge on 35-amp-equipped vehicles: still a pretty big wire).

Question: why did Chrysler use 6-gauge wires going to the ammeter unless they had to carry the full battery load current? If there really was an "external shunt" in the engine compartment that passed almost all the load current, diverting it from the ammeter as Dan claims, then they could have used an 18-gauge wire or smaller from the "external shunt" to the ammeter, like they used for the rest of the low-current circuits.

Now let's follow wire nos. S1A and A1 on the schematic from the ammeter and see where they go. First, they both go through the firewall in their own special, high-current bulkhead connector, not through the regular multi-pin bulkhead connector that the low-current circuits use. If there was really an "external shunt", that bypasses most of the load current from the ammeter as Dan claims, then why was it necessary to use the special high-current bulkhead connector? Hmm??? (On 35-amp equipped cars, both wires do go through the regular bulkhead connector, but again they then go directly to positive battery terminal and the alternator output terminal with no shunt.)

Continuing to follow the schematic, wire A1 goes directly to the alternator output terminal. No shunt in that line!

Wire S1A goes directly to the battery terminal on the starter relay. No shunt in that line either!

Now let's look at a schematic for a 1960 Valiant (before a 100-amp alternator was even a gleam in the engineers' eyes). Wire J1 goes from the ammeter directly to the "battery" terminal of the ignition switch. Wire R6 goes, via the headlight switch, directly to the output terminal of the alternator. And wire A1 goes directly to the battery terminal of the starter solenoid. No shunt in those circuits, either!

Moreover, there's a fusible link in the ammeter circuit. A fusible link would serve no purpose if the ammeter circuit carried only low current, as Dan claims. A fusible link only serves to protect the circuit against extremely high current draw, such as that caused by a short circuit, and Chrysler only used them in high-current circuits.

Furthermore, read through the official factory service manual for these cars. You won't find any mention of any "external shunt".

In other words, between 1960 and the mid-70s, Chrysler used no so-called "external (ammeter) shunt", regardless of whether the car used a standard 35-amp alternator or a 100-amp one.

I rest my case. Whatsay, Dan?