You asked for 5yo level....
It would be good to make an effort to read the factory circuit diagram from Jeep, along with any attempt to understand this.
Prior to 1978, the V8 used a different alternator from the inline 6, and Jeep put both schemes on the same drawing. For 1978, they switch to the same Delco alternator for both, but they continued to use most of the same drawing with two alternators. Don't be confused.
Electricity has voltage and current. Similar to water in a pipe, current is the amount (volume of water) and voltage is the potential (pressure of the water). The ammeter measures current (flow) and like a flowmeter, the current must pass through the ammeter to be measured. A voltmeter is different, like a pressure gauge. It requires no flow through it - instead it just inserts itself and measures the pressure. (Not strictly true, but close enough for our purposes).
The alternator creates current to replenish what's drawn from the battery. This current must flow to the battery via a big wire. There is a lot of current, so the wire must be large. The ammeter is in the dash. Thus the current must come from the alternator, go through the firewall and up to the ammeter, through the ammeter, back through the firewall, and to the battery.
Here is the circuit diagram:
Start at the alternator, and see the wire marked 12 RED 10. That's wire number 12 (listed in a table on another page) that's red and a 10 ga wire. Current from the alternator travels along this wire up to the ammeter, and returns to the battery via wire 55A YELLOW 10. You can see that's connected to the starter solenoid via 55B YELLOW 14, a fusible link, which connects to the battery cable.
The ammeter contains a component called a shunt. There are two posts on the ammeter, one at each end of the shunt. When current travels through the shunt, it creates a small voltage which moves the needle on the ammeter. When the shunt gets old, it can heat up and cause the dash fire we want to avoid using a bypass. One way to bypass is to go around the shunt in the ammeter by putting both wires on the same post at the ammeter. This takes the shunt out of the circuit, but the current still flows up to the dash and back to the battery.
Another approach is to take wire 12 RED 10 and connect it directly to the solenoid through a new fusible link. Electricity will always take the easiest route (path of least resistance) and now the charging current will bypass the ammeter route and go direct to the battery. You can then remove the ammeter and some of its wiring, as you see fit. You can't remove everything, since you still need to power the dash and lights ... but you can remove the ammeter and about half of the original ammeter wire.
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