Thanks Stuart. Well that makes sense as I actually hoped that the power was feeding through the ammeter BEFORE the key as that would indicate the problem was the short at the ammeter and not (perhaps) my wiring installation.
Now I wonder why the wire/gauge was overloaded. I have a HEI Langdon coil but wired it up as instructed with 10 gauge wire and it was unaffected. If that ammeter failed just passing current with the key off and somehow grounded itself, I sure wont be puttin that back in.
I have to get this figured out so I can make sure I prevent it again. Ralph
