Ok, just spend some more time tracing things.
First of all, my alternator is a Delco single wire. It has the big stud marked BATT and then TWO spade connectors together. One marked 1 and the other 2. There is a jumper wire connecting #2 with the BATT stud.
I am kind of thinking this is the alternator that doesn't need the DA plug? It looks a little different from Craig's.
Now, I had my head under the dash and I need to revise my original description a little. The wire goes into the dash and gets spliced into everything including the switch. From the switch there are 3 wires going back through the fire wall. Two go to the starter and one to the + on the coil. (keystart)
So, eventhough I don't have a direct wire to the BATT, it does go there but through the dash and I assume an always on terminal on the switch. I guess this is why the PO used 10 gauge for everything.
So, basically he hooked everything up so it will work. Only, his big mistake was to put a ballast resistor in the line that comes from the alternator and powers everything. This is why he told me that the way he did it he didn't have to change any bulbs or anything. This is why he has no resistors anywhere including the gas gauge.
This is why the gauge is always pegged full. I am thinking that the ballast resistor is probably letting through a little more than 6v when the engine is running and this makes the gauge read full yet is not enough juice to blow it up, which is what many of you said should happen to a gauge on 12v.
So, this is what I think I have to do.
1. Change all the lightbulbs to 12v.
2. Put a ballast resistor in the gas gauge circuit.
3. Take the existing ballast resistor out of the alternator line and install it in the wire to the coil instead.
Is that it? Would it be better to add another wire straight to the battery or + on the starter instead of making all the juice go though the dash? Or is this an acceptable way of wiring?
