Oliver 60 electrical problem

I am trying to rewire an Oliver 60 I recently bought. When I push the cut out contacts together the amps meter hand jumps as far right as it will go and stays there whether the engine is running or not. I dont' have any lights and don,t plan to. What do I have wrong?

Reverse the wires on the back of the guage.

   You didn't give us much information so we have to make some assumptions.  Does it have the original generator and cutout relay?  The original system used a third brush generator.  The field coil circuit went to ground through the light switch.  With the light switch pushed "in" (low charge) it produced 4 amps (field circuit through the resistor on the switch to ground).  Pull the switch to the first stop and output incresed to 10 amps (field circuit now bypasses the resistor and goes directly to ground).  upon startup as the generator begans to produce voltage the coil in the cutout gained an electromagnetic field that closes the points completeing the circuit to the ammeter then to the battery.

   You manually close the points in the cutout without the engine running and it completes the circuit to the battery and you will have high amperage flow through the wires to the generator armature and field circuit (ammeter will show max. discharge).  I told my students that all electrical components are built with smoke in them.  Hold the points closed for very long and the smoke will start to come out!

Excellent explanation,. I have found as well rewiring is much easier using "factory cloth" wiring packages from Korves. As well as being like factory wires each are labelled with a number corresponding to instruction sheet where to where. Makes a nice neat installation.

Thank you all for your help, I connected a wire from the field terminal to a ground and got more than 10 amps on meter but may be meter error. I do have original type gen and cut out
I guess i need a light switch with a resistor?