nealschumacher

for simplicity and being able to dim the gauges with all other dash lights I wire them into the dash lights that way if they are too bright dim them down a bit

misterstyx69

iTrader: (142)

BUDD.I just wired in My Greddy Gauge..Now,It Has one Wire to go to switched,and the other Power Wire is supposed to have 12volts constant..The light part of it,I wired to one of the Lights for the Cigarette lighter.That provides the Illumination and you can Dim and brighten with the Light ****..So,In Short,wire all the Lights of the Gauge to a light(cut the wire and splice in) of the cigarette lighter,or ash tray.The switched wire you can splice into the radio Harness,and that will give you 12 volts Switched(or run a wire to the Diagnostic Connector by the Leadiing coil,one of those wires gets 12 volts switched)...the Constant Power Wire,runs direct to the Battery..I hope that helps.

FrankV702

iTrader: (14)

Is your relay turning on? I'd try them without the relay.. I bought a fuse block from Autozone (same one that comes with the Haltech wiring loom) and just fused each one then ran them to the 12v under the steering column. Works like a charm

misterstyx69

iTrader: (142)

ya,that is what I was wondering too.Why you would use a relay for such low power draw?..NIX the relay.hook it as I Did,and there shouldn't be a problem.

arghx

iTrader: (3)

the relay is unnecessary for this application. Those gauges draw milliamps of current even with the illumination. More important is a very good ground... did you ground them to a bolt on the chassis and sand away the paint?

NJGreenBudd

iTrader: (1)

Okay, I now understand the relay wasn't necessary, but I'm really just using it as a switched source of 12v, I'll try it without it but I actually added the relay in an attempt to remedy this problem. The gauges were all running right off of the ignition wire under the dash to start. The oil pressure and temp gauges worked fine but the water temp never moved. Then the oil pressure one stopped working so I decided to add in the relay in case they weren't getting enough power.

The ground goes under the dash to the pedal assembly and bolts to the firewall, I had sanded the area where it bolts with a dremel to bare metal. I'll relocate the ground to a fresh spot on the actual chassis and see what happens.

The morning that the gauges stopped working I took the dash off and felt the gauges and they were all hot, even the water gauge. And they were hotter than I would expect the little light bulb to get. That's what made me concerned about the possibility of a short or lack or current or something so I rewired with the relay.

Thanks.

NJGreenBudd

iTrader: (1)

I just tested both oil pressure gauge and oil temp gauge one at a time with power from the ignition. No luck on either gauge.

Now here's a bit of info that might shed some light on my problems, I have found my new boost controller to be dead. My greddy profec B spec 2 was tapped into the same power sources as the all three gauges were originally, from the ignition under the steering wheel. When I was rewiring the boost controller the other day I accidentally wired the power and ground backwards on the boost controller harness. I'm pretty sure that's what killed the boost controller but now I'm fearing that the gauges or their senders were damaged at the same time since they shared power and ground.

I need more info on testing the actual senders, sorry if it's an easy concept I just don't fully understand what to look for, what should I be looking for exactly? Thanks

clokker

iTrader: (2)

Oh-oh.

It'd be the gauges that took the hit, not the sending units.

NJGreenBudd

iTrader: (1)

I'm pretty sure the boost controller getting blown up happened after I had noticed the oil pressure gauge stopped working. That's why I went back to mess with the wiring. Yeah it was, I remember having the boost controller and the three gauges all wired from the same power and ground under the steering wheel. The water tmep never worked, then the oil pressure stopped working so I went to mess with the wiring.

But anyways, the boost controller is definitely dead, is there any way to check out the gauges to see if they're toast or is it pretty much conclusive that they got smoked too?

I got a new profec head unit and solenoid for $80, I guess I'll get some new gauges and make sure to triple check all my connections before putting the negatove battery terminal back on.

I have a few questions for when I replace the gauges:

Is it okay for all three gauges to share one +12v power source?

Should each gauge have a separate ground to chassis?

I noticed in the autometer instructions it says the sender is grounded though the threads, would there be anyway to give the sender a better ground. My coolant temp sender is in one of those radiator hose adapters is that going to provide any kind of ground??

FrankV702

iTrader: (14)

All 4 of my gauges plus my E-fan share the same +12v power source as well as the gauges all having the same ground on the chassis. What I did was use the fuse block for each individual gauge and the E-fan, I ran them all to the same 12v IGN power source and soldered them together on that lead. I did pretty much the same with the ground, ran small leads off of each gauge, then soldered them to a bigger lead and connected it to the chassis. My E-fan is, of course, hooked to a relay, but that's it.

As for the sender being in the radiator hose adapter, I'm not sure if it grounds itself out in that location. I put mine behind the water pump housing using a Sun-pro metric adapter kit.

Go48

iTrader: (7)

Assuming the coolant temp gauge is electric, you need to ground the sensor/adapter. Run a wire from the sensor adapter to a good ground. There should be a tapped hole/screw on the side of the adapter (see image). Maybe you've already done that?

NJGreenBudd

iTrader: (1)

Haha nope, I forgot to do that and never attached a ground wire to the screw on the hose adapter. I knew there was something wrong there and that explains why the gauge never read anything from the start.





But I think I'm still out of luck as far as the gauges go, I probably shocked them to hell when I messed up the boost controller.

I'm looking at getting some replacements right now.

NJGreenBudd

iTrader: (1)

I ordered the replacement gauges, I went with the same Carbon Fiber series from autometer. We're going to try this again but do it just a little differently this time around. I'll be using the cigarette lighter light for the lights in the gauges this time. I'll also be using a separate circuit entirely for the boost controller.

Go48

iTrader: (7)

You can also connect the gauge power wires (red) to the +12vdc power wire of the cig lighter for the gauge power. Connect all the gauge ground wires (black) to a good engine ground. A good ground point is the bolt that fastens the ground connector to the firewall near the wiper motor.

White gauge wire connects to the cig lighter lighting circuit wire which is controlled by the gauge dimmer switch. Check the FSM for the respective wire colors.

Then you will have joy like this.

NJGreenBudd

iTrader: (1)

That sounds pretty good, I'll do something along those lines. And that dash there is pretty cool, I had looked at that and a few other before making mine. Good stuff.

NJGreenBudd

iTrader: (1)

Just wanted to add a tidbit of knowledge I gleamed from talking with the tech support at autometer. To determine whether it's a bad gauge or sender all you have to do is wire the gauge up with power and ground and then connect the sender post on the back of the gauge to ground - the gauge should peg out, as in read maximum. If the gauge reads full then you have a bad sender, if the gauge doesn't move then you have a bad gauge. I have yet to actually do this but I do it later today.

FrankV702

iTrader: (14)

I must say, you've got some ***** cutting them $100 silicone hoses to place that adapter!

87 t-66

iTrader: (133)

most of the silicone hoses ive seen need cut at some point to fit properly

NJGreenBudd

iTrader: (1)

I had already trimmed it from the ends a bit to get it to fit better and taking the inch out of the middle for the sensor adapter seemed to help the fit even better.

But really, the hoses are crap for the most part, these are the XO2 Racing hoses not Samco. The lower hose didn't even fit it was so short so I bought a new OEM one for the lower. I just wanted to replace the old hoses and picked them up cheap, I'll most likely be replacing both hoses with Samco in the near future and I'm not going to cut that hose, I'll drill and tap the water pump for that.

NJGreenBudd

iTrader: (1)

So I was going to install the three new gauges yesterday but decided to check the old gauges with the method that the Autometer tech support guys gave me. I wired power and ground to just the oil pressure gauges and put a ground on the signal post on the back of the gauge - it pegged right out. I then wired each of the other two gauges with power and ground and testes each one by grounding the sender post on the back. Both of them worked just fine, or at least the needle went right up to the max reading on the gauges.

So, it appears that the gauges themselves are in working order here, there must be some problem with the senders.

Any ideas why the senders would stop working or any other reason I could be having these issues.

Thanks for any help here.

clokker

iTrader: (2)

I'm surprised- I would have bet the gauges were the problem.

It might be time to get medieval on their asses...
I'd hook up the gauges external to the car and confirm operation.
Any 12v source should be sufficient and you could suspend the sensors (at least the temp sensors) in boiling water and see what happens.

Assuming they work, you know- for better or worse- that the wiring is at fault.

Edit:
Just a thought...are you using teflon tape on the sensor threads?
VDO is adamant about NOT using it as it may interfere with sensor grounding but I don't know Autometer's position on this.

NJGreenBudd

iTrader: (1)

Yeah me too. But this is good news to me, and the wiring can't be wrong, it's just too simple, I'm even working with just one power and one ground and one gauge. I even made sure which sender was going to which gauge.

I am using teflon tape per Autometer's instruction but I am concerned about the senders being grounded. if you read on their instructions it says that you may have to add additional grounds for the sensors. I think that may be my problem.

Check it out:

http://www.autometer.com/productPDF/1079A.pdf

clokker

iTrader: (2)

You can't make this assumption given that you have three gauges that don't work.
Why not eliminate ALL the possible failure vectors and use different wiring for the test.

TongassT

Oh yeah, that seems so obvious to me (now). You're not completing the circuit with the sensor. The gage can't measure the sensor because you don't have any voltage drop across the sensor. Add the ground wire to the sender, it should work. When the sensor is installed on the block, you don't have to worry about it becuase the engine is the ground, but as you have it hooked up isolated by the hoses, it's not completing the circuit.

NJGreenBudd

iTrader: (1)

Right, that should explain the case for the water gauge for sure, but the other two were working but then stopped working.

I just went out and took a hose clamp and clamped a wire to the body of the oil pressure sender and connected the wire to the chassis. Guess what? The gauge reads perfect oil pressure now that the sender is grounded better. The oil pressure and temp gauges are installed in the oil filter adapter thing and I don't think they were getting good ground either.

So it looks like I'll just add grounds for the senders and everything will be okay.

I have three brand new autometer carbon fiber gauges that I haven't even opened up.