An ammeter placed between positive and ground on the battery will make a short circuit. You want to put an ammeter in series with the circuit, that is between the positive terminal on the battery and the positive battery cable, for example. Use a volt meter across the battery to see what is going on. If the voltage drops way low when you try to start, likely the battery is bad. If the battery voltage stays high, then a power/ground cable/connection may be bad.

r.c.brown@ieee.org
TruckEditor@tlca.org
Project: 4Crawler
4Crawler OffRoad - 4x4Wire discount code