Alternator wiring

On Tue, 19 Feb 2008 11:14:03 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

On Feb 19, 10:54 am, Sliker wrote:

That's exactly the way I want to hook it up. Although, I do remember
in reading Bob's book that with that setup he suggests hooking up the
amp meter between the batteries ground post and the ground bus to get
it to read right.

If you put the ammeter between the battery's ground post and
ground, you'd have all the starter current running through it. It
would smoke pretty good. Starters draw hundreds of amps. Grounding the
starter separately would be pretty difficult, since it's grounded to
the engine through its mount, and the engine is grounded to the
airplane as a return path for both the starter and alternator, which
is also firmly grounded to the engine through its mount. The
alternator, though, should have a separate ground wire to keep noise
to a minimum.

Dan

Sounds like another reason not to use that alternator wiring method. I
also remember reading about him mentioning using a high amperage rated
shunt for the amp meter when used in that location. The issues seem to
snowball. I have one question, if the B lead were hooked up to the
starter contactor, would reversing the wires on the amp meter make it
read correctly?