I was thinking the gauge staying on meant something was still drawing power. So far nothing has happened.

Oh, yeah. Ammeters are supposed to go to sleep when you turn the car off.

They measure amperage (how much current flow is entering or leaving your battery) and there shouldn't be any when you say STOP.

The few exceptions might be leaving your lights on, or maybe an electric clock, an alarm system, a nav system, the radio, or an internet-like LED screen some cars have now. Those might remain ON after you kill the car, but your ammeter would move so very slightly when measuring that current flow, it would be hard to notice it. Of course, Phrog's new gauges might actually be sensitive enough to detect a negative flow if he sat in the driveway with the radio on or something like that.

Consider the Ammeter like a WATER FLOW meter, and the Voltmeter like a WATER PRESSURE gauge. If your garden hose nozzle is shut off, you have plenty of pressure, but little or no flow. If your nozzle drips a bit, that's like having an alarm system always ON after you shut the car off.

After watching him for more than 2 years, I have come to trust the common-sense judgement of Bryan Little. He was never a Marine, but he is a Scotty so he makes some sense to me. Next to his wife and new kidlet, the most important thing to Bryan is his 240Z. He thinks hard and long before he modifies it, and he works hard to maintain it at the "90% of full-race" condition. One of the most recent changes he made to his Z was swapping out the dash clock for a Z voltmeter. He gave me a list of reasons too long to print here, but they all made sense. He would rather know what's happening with his electrical system than know what time of day it is.

Between the standard ammeter and the new voltmeter, he can tell how the electrons are flowing in his car. For the time, he can look at the sun.

I was thinking of installing a fuel pressure gauge where the clock is.

This might be the screwiest Post I've ever participated in!

It started out about loose lug nuts, then went to flying nose badges, then to flying Zebra hoods, then rusted hood hinges, then wheel-less Hondas, then "patchwork" Volkswagens, then Voltmeters, then Ammeters, and now we're onto fuel pressure gauges!

Z Man, go back to page one and rename this thing!

What would be a good title for it?

I dunno ~ "Everything Z"???

I'd like to point out that the flying zebra hood did NOT have a nose badge on it. (for safety)

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71 on a rotisserie, two more in pieces in my shed...and a 69 1600 waiting for me to get to it

Better make sure that fuel pressure gauge is ELECTRIC. Meaning, the gauge gets its reading from electrical wires that go to a pressure transducer on your fuel rail. Running a mechanical fuel pressure gauge, which would require you to run fuel line into the cockpit, is just plain bonkers. Its asking for trouble.

I'll be doing the same when I order my wideband AFR from speedhut sometime in the future.

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-Chris

thanks for the info. for now i am just going to put white face over lays on the gauges to spice them up. 20 bucks.

Noooooo! Not white face! Anything but white face!!!


But if you must.... http://www.speedhut.com/custom_gauge_di ... Datsun.htm

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-Chris