Ammeter gauge not working on 72 ! Any one schooled on this

[Ozark Tim]

The ammeter gauge does not work on my 72 F-100 Explorer. It is a 360 V8 auto with a/c and full power.
Is there a fuse, or a connection that tends to go bad on these, or does the gauge tend to fail?
If you have any information it would be greatly appreciated.
OT

[FoMoCo]

The ameter gauge should be reading any 12 v soucre thay isnt drawn on, sae headlights. Maby the circut bourd has become brittle on the back of your gauge set?

Nick

[FORDification]

Even when they ARE "working", the needles in the factory ammeters barely moved, so they're not the most reliable. If you want to accurately monitor your charging system, I'd highly suggest an add-on voltmeter.

But in reference to your question...does the needle move at all? With the engine off, if your turn on your headlights, does the needle move even a tiny bit to the left?

[Ozark Tim]

I definately want to keep it original. So I will check the printed circuit to see if it is a problem. I was just suspicious that there may be a typical failure for this that all you who are Ford truck enthusiasts may have encountered. I just bought this truck in January, and I am new to the old Ford truck scene.
Thanks for suggestions, OT

[willowbilly3]

We have talked about this before and having all the connections clean seems to be a key issue since the guage reads the very slight different between two different paths. Personally, I think the stock guages are junk and the ammeter is totally useless. I have owned maybe 40-50 66-79 Ford pickups, including some new ones and only ever saw any discernable movement on a couple of them, and even then only about a needles with. A lot of us are using (or planning to) the F-600 cluster. You can keep a factory appearing panel and have round guages. I am not sure if the stocker would work any better but you could fill the panel with some nice aftermarket guages, which is what I hope to do with mine someday. For now I live with a 2 guage panel that houses a voltmeter and a vacuum guage.