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sstef,
I agree with the comments so far, mainly where it is dangerous, and in most cases not that informative for the work involved to install one safely.
Nevertheless, I embarked on this task and suffered for it:
Having already two voltmeters, gauge and aftermarket digital toy, I still was not certain my eight year old battery wasn't going intermittent shorted-cell, or sulfation piling up under the plates, when the voltmeter indicated a drop. So I wired in a cheapie ammeter temporarily.
Just as noted already, I had to feed the entire current carrying capacity of the running car and supply capacity of the alternator in a safe manner to a cheap imported stamped metal gauge inside the dash. No, you don't have to use cable to support the starter, the ammeter must measure how much goes in (and goes out) of the battery when it is not being used to crank. In a 240, that isn't real simple, because the alternator-to-battery path shares the starter cable.
My version, very temporary, extended the alternator lead to the battery bus, or the black plastic covered terminal bus on the firewall next to the battery, bypassing the starter cable. The two 8-Ga. wires from the ammeter completed the circuit from the battery positive terminal to the bus, using 60A in-line fuses. What a kludge!
The suffering came a few weeks after restoring the car to the previous configuration (a turbo gauge used to watch manifold vacuum) without bothering to plug the large grommet in the firewall added for the heavy wiring. Some field mice entered and made themselves a comfy nest in the console out of a wool blanket I left them.
By the way, I did look around (egages.com) for a remote shunt ammeter to fit the VDO spot...don't recall seeing any. Can't understand why they'd make any other kind nowadays.
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