Narrative:

Climbing out of FL180 I did an overhead panel scan and noticed that the battery amp meter was reading 450 amps. There was no other abnormal indication anywhere in the cockpit. The first officer and I discussed the problem and came to the conclusion that it had to be an indication problem. I phone patched maintenance control to discuss our options. After explaining what we had; he informed me that there was no QRH or maintenance procedure for our problem. Maintenance then called the [manager on duty]. Between the two of them they had a lengthy conversation about what we should do. Most of the time leaving us; (the pilots) out of the loop. The [manager on duty] wanted the flight to continue before consulting with the captain. I spoke to the [manager on duty] the next day. He told me he heard two other voices on the line and he thought that one of them was mine when it was two mechanics. My arinc phone patch was not the clearest and they could only hear every third word. After we were all in agreement that it was truly an indication problem we continued to [destination] and maintenance was shipping parts to fix the problem. Maintenance installed a new overhead electrical panel but it didn't fix the problem. Further troubleshooting found a ground wire that was cut leading to the amp gage. Maintenance did not have the proper crimp tool to splice the wires together. The flight was then delayed for 24 hours. [A different] maintenance [service] came down the next day and spliced the wires together. We flew the [next leg] with no further problems. The battery in the airplane was replaced 9 days prior.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737NG Captain reported he continued to destination after experiencing high battery amperage. Problem was later traced to amp gauge wiring.

Narrative: Climbing out of FL180 I did an overhead panel scan and noticed that the battery amp meter was reading 450 amps. There was no other abnormal indication anywhere in the cockpit. The First Officer and I discussed the problem and came to the conclusion that it had to be an indication problem. I phone patched Maintenance Control to discuss our options. After explaining what we had; he informed me that there was no QRH or maintenance procedure for our problem. Maintenance then called the [manager on duty]. Between the two of them they had a lengthy conversation about what we should do. Most of the time leaving us; (the pilots) out of the loop. The [manager on duty] wanted the flight to continue before consulting with the Captain. I spoke to the [manager on duty] the next day. He told me he heard two other voices on the line and he thought that one of them was mine when it was two mechanics. My ARINC phone patch was not the clearest and they could only hear every third word. After we were all in agreement that it was truly an indication problem we continued to [destination] and Maintenance was shipping parts to fix the problem. Maintenance installed a new overhead electrical panel but it didn't fix the problem. Further troubleshooting found a ground wire that was cut leading to the amp gage. Maintenance did not have the proper crimp tool to splice the wires together. The flight was then DELAYED for 24 hours. [A different] maintenance [service] came down the next day and spliced the wires together. We flew the [next leg] with no further problems. The battery in the airplane was replaced 9 days prior.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.