[mattpatt]

About the ammeter:

Tried all your recommendations, Blas. Everything was tight. When I charged the battery the ammeter showed ~10A running (was ~25 before) so that really helped. I put another ammeter on series with the ammeter and turned the lights on: both showed the same so I think the ammeter is ok. Maybe the Optima battery just takes high current when it's not fully charged and if I run the engine more than about 30 seconds it will come back to "normal"? I'll be trying that in the next couple of days.

Does the voltage regulator also regulatrt current (I thought it was just voltage)????

Thx, Blas