* Voltmeter*...
A very handy instrument, much more useful than an 'idiot light', which only tells you that there is some charge going to the battery, but not whether the charging rate is too low or too high.

I usually added one to any A series which I looked after that did not have a voltmeter as standard.




Two Horse Stables on A series voltmeters by slcchassis, on Flickr

Yes they are cool, but given the bare bones nature of the car it seemed a bit luxurious.

OK dumb question but is that meter a voltmeter or an ammeter gauge? I always thought it was an ammeter gauge and measured current not voltage.

Sometimes the needle would read toward the middle and other times mostly to the left but not all the way to the left.

I plugged one of those digital voltmeters into my power point adapter I installed next to my radio to compare against this gauge.

As you may know, if a car battery is on the weak side, the voltmeter may read as high as 14.3 volts trying to recharge the battery. If the car has been driven daily or just came off a trickle or regular battery charger, and the battery is fully charged then the alternator may put out as low as 12.6 volts.

The voltmeter tended to vary between 13.5 and sometimes as high as 15 volts so I know the alternator is charging. But can't remember what the gauge was showing at the time.

One thing I find interesting. One day I checked the battery voltage after the car had been sitting for a few days and it was 12.0 volts. That tells me this battery is getting weak. It should be 12.6 volts.

On any other car, 12.0 volts wouldn't be enough to turn over a starter motor but my 2CV never struggled. I guess it doesn't take that many cold cranking amps to turn over a 600cc 2 cylinder engine!

Ken says its a voltmeter. I never figured mine out when I had one! Lol. (That £100 2cv was so amazingly reliable! All I did was changed the oil regularly and grease the pins.)

Reading the text in that document I posted might, possibly, be of assistance, especially the part which mentions that "the normal charging voltage is 14".

Btw, didn't most 'old school' automotive ammeters have their needle centred, so that they could indicate 'charge' or discharge'?
That was certainly the case in those early A series fitted with dynamos, for which an ammeter was a more appropriate instrument.

the meter is a thermic voltmeter.
The old cars had an ammeter. That is very usefull. You see the charge or decharge but also you see it move that shows you that your direction indicators are working or your stoplights.

That's good to know. I was wondering why the numbers on some of these were peeling off.

I really don't want to mess with my original speedometer since it's in perfect condition. Here's one for £35.00 that might make a good candidate for restoration.




By the way, now I remember why I thought the electrical meter measured current instead of voltage due to the - and + symbols. Usually - indicates discharge and + indicates charge. If it were a voltmeter, then why didn't they use numbers?

Another thing that might be holding me up. Maybe I need to first disconnect the speedometer cable from the gearbox?

I've been working on a MPH overlay for my Trabant. I originally made some stickers in the corrected MPH numbers to go over the KPH numbers but it clashed with the matt black background.



So I scanned it and have been doing some photoshoping to it. I finally got it to looks OK when printed but the ink rubs off the glossy photo paper when handled. Before leaving for work I sprayed it down with some clear lacquer. The theory is this will prevent the ink from rubbing off when the overlay is handled.