[DeTomaso] Electrical questions--HELP!

[Mark McWhinney]

>> I'm really reticent to try anything until I find out why the ammeter is 
pegging to the right--it's showing 75 amps flowing through it.  No wonder it

started smoking!

75 or even 100 amps will not cause your amp gauge to smoke.  What was
smoking was not the amp gauge anyway; it was the insulation on the wires
that attach to the gauge.  The problem is a bad connection.

Remove the wires from the gauge.  Clean the wires' connectors and wrap the
burnt insulation with several layers of electrical tape.

If you look carefully at the bottom of the studs on the amp gauge, you will
see a nut there.  Tighten those nuts down, so that the studs have a good
connection to the gauge.  If needed, clean the studs and the area around
them.  Replace the wires.  

Put on a new washer and a new lock washer of the appropriate size.  (The old
washers are probably too crudded up and are all but impossible to clean
well.)  Replace the nuts and tighten them down.