I did a cluster refurbish a few years ago. When I had it out I sent the alt gauge out to a guy that guts the original gauge and converts it to a stock looking Volt gauge. The instructions said to wire it to a 12v keyed on source in the dash which I did. Although the Volt gauge powers up I don't like the way it behaves.
Every time I power up something the gauge drops as if its losing power, even though its not. Turn on the A/C and it drops to halfway. Turn on the directional and the gauge flickers with the blinkers. Turn up the stereo and when its loud the gauge drops. Now I noticed one thing that does not impact the gauge at all. The rear defrost. And i know why. because the rear defrost is not wired internally in the dash. Its power runs direct to the positive side of the starter solenoid so the Volt gauge isn't aware or affected by its usage.
Since the purpose of the Volt gauge is to show that the alternator is charging, I want to find a way to run its power line into the engine compartment and see if I can get a connection off the alternator, or if not can I connect a relay to the positive battery terminal that powers on/off with key on/off?
If I just ran the power to the battery positive I'd get a direct reading of charging voltage but it would be a slow drain when the key of off without a relay to cut the power.
Any suggestions for a custom set up to do what I want? On later model cars/SUVs they have stock voltage gauges and on my Suburban, they are not affected by usage of dashboard accessories. So with that concept in mind there has to be a way to hard wire an aftermarket Volt gauge in the engine compartment to get a realtime reading on actual charging status.
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