Wiring up gauges

[Kooldino]

Ok. So I have some autometer gauges here. On the EGT, there are 6 wires to wire up (SIX! WTF??).

-Backlight: Ground and 12V power (to the dash lighting so that it turns on when i turn my lights on)

-Reading: The 2 input wires from the EGT probe

-Gauge power: 12V for power (I guess it should be on full time) and another ground.

Ok, 2 wires come straight from the Probe...so that shouldnt' be too bad.

Now I still need 2 ground wires, one "always on" 12V line and one 12V line that comes on with my parking or headlights. ALSO, I'm gonna need to connect whatever I have to connect for my Autometer manual boost gauge. I'm guessing just a light (12V when lights are on) and a ground?

Where's the best place to run the grounds to?
Where should I run the 12V "always on" lines to?
Where should I run the 12V "only on when lights are on" lines to?
Can I split my power lines so I only have to run one wire and split it to go to say...all 12V "always on" or all 12V "only on when lights are on" lines? If so, How many times can I split before the signal gets weak?

 

[I-Am-Chris]

you can run them into the fuse panel. Also you want a constant when the cars on , not all the time. I grounded my stuff to a bolt on the accel. pedal assembly.

 

[duMb KeoLa]

sounds complicated man, for the lights i just tapped in my own toggle switch, sometimes i dont want the gauge lights on at night just to look more stealth so i just turn them off, so you can do that if you want. i just tapped them all to the same line, i got 5 gauges to that. as for the others, i tapped into the ignition. im going to run all the gauges to one line through the ignition so hopefully its strong enough, but i dont see why it should be a problem, thats the main line!. if you find anything out let me know so i can make the proper adjustments, but as for now, im gonna have 6 autometer phantom gauges (bo0st, a/f, oil press, water temp, pyrometer, and 5" tach), another a/f meter (rspeed), and my turbo timer all up to the same line. anyone know if this will be a problem?

 

[chdesign]

Actually the constant 12V is a CONSTANT 12v like the memory wire to yoru radio the switched 12V is the one that is used when the car is on. As for a ground find somethign metal with a bolt and go to town I grounded most of mine things on the metal support bracket for the radio.

 

[Kooldino]

chdesign - So I want to wire the gauge power lines into "switched 12V"?

Also, could someone post pics of which wires (or fuse panel like Chris mentioned) I should be connecting what to? This is all new to me, I don't wanna F up.

 

[Kooldino]

bump

 

[chdesign]

A switched 12V is any accesory that turns on when you put your key in the acc. position yiou can verify that wire with a voltage tester you can get a digital multimeter that will work for this application at wal-mart for about 15 bucks and it comes in very handy with other diagnostics as well.

 

[Kooldino]

Do I have to cut into the wire to find out?

I assume to see if a line is a line that comes on w/ my lights I do the same thing? Any ideas on where to start looking? Under the dash or in the fuse box or what? What color wires? Pics? Anything would help me here.

 

[duMb KeoLa]

if i remember correctly i removed the steering wheel cover thing, the black piece behind the steering wheel. not very hard, just a couple of screws on the bottom of the counsle, the top part should just snap off. from there you can see the wires from the ignition. DONT QUOTE ME ON THIS, MAKE SURE YOU CHECK BEFORE DOING THIS!!! if i remember correctly it was a blue wire that came out of the ignition switch that i used for my switched power, but again, im not 100% sure. i think there was a diagram in this forum that showed the wire colors and locations.

 

[duMb KeoLa]

bump, if you needed to see it

 

[Kooldino]

KeoLa - That may work, thanks. Also, I heard that if you go into the head unit on the mp3s that there is an orange wire (DIMMER WIRE) and a RED will be switched one (when car is on it's on) that you can tap into.

Anyone do this?

 

[Kooldino]

Here's what I was talking about above...all of the wires that go into the Z828. It may be a little tight to wire into, but it may work. Does anyone know which wires do what for sure, and which wires I'll want to do what with?

 

[Kooldino]

Even more madness, here's the manual for my 828...looks like the ORANGE line is a dimmer line and the RED line is the power line. Of course, black is ground. Does anyone know if the ORANGE line is 12V so i can power the backlight of my gauges off of it? Is the RED line 12V?

 

[Kooldino]

Doh, forgot the image...

 

[Kooldino]

And just for kicks, here's a shot of a cluster of wires that goes to where all the heat/AC/etc controls are...

 

[Little Beavis]

Do you want my opinion? I guess you've already gotten it, but all those wires are 12V basically.

Yellow = unswitched power
Red = switched power
Orange = switched power (when the lights are on)
Blue(s) = switched power when the radio is on
and so on.

Technically as you add more and more gauges you should use a relay if they are sucking a lot of juice. I have two gauges and have no problem at this point. I will be installing the third one shortly. My gut feel (without measuring the current draw) is that the small light bulbs and electronics won't draw a whole bunch of current.

The manual pretty much tells you what they all do. . .
Don't think, just do! Just kidding man!

 

[Kooldino]

Ok, I did what Beavis said. Man, this was a REAL b1tch. Here's the end results...

 

[Kooldino]

And a dark shot...

 

[duMb KeoLa]

looks great man, but do they work?
did you hook up your egt gauge, and if you did, can you take some pics, imma do that this weekend so i could use some tips. thanks

 

[Little Beavis]

Looks good, Dana.
Now on to the other fun stuff!