I had an Ammeter in my car for years but didn't like the idea that they drew such a high current so I replaced it with a Volt Meter.
When I removed the gauge I noticed the wires had turned black about an inch down the insulation from where they were attached to the back of the gauge !!! I feel safer now.
Bouna fortuna,
Peter C.
Peter,
Your ammeter must have had the spade connectors? The large ones, rated at something like 35 amps, can after a long time work loose from vibration or loom movement creating resistance in the connection, which will heat the connector which causes the metal to anneal, which makes more resistance, etc. you get the idea. It can eventually cause a failure or possibly a fire in the worst case. Periodic checking of the connectors should be done on these old cars to insure they are still tight and there is no evidence of localized heating at the ammeter. I had evidence on my Europa so I converted to ring tongue lugs with lock washers. Note that when converting to an alternator you can easily exceed the amp rating of these connectors.
I personally prefer an ammeter to a voltmeter but both are useful. The ammeter gives you quantity of current flowing so you can evaluate if things are normal or not. Voltmeters, at least to me, are more vague in what they are displaying. Of course both is the best of all worlds. You can now get LEDs that will display different colors based on what voltage is connected, really cool and not hard to connect nor is it invasive to your original look.