I just aquired a pod and two autometer guages off a friend b/c he sold his J. I have ultra-lite a volt and airfuel guage.
Wiring to the ground of the battery is self explanitory through the fire wall. But I need to wire to power so that when I turn on my key or turn my headlights turn on the guages have power. Where do I find a live wire that is easy to find to soder the power to? Also I'm a little confused with the volt guage b/c the bulb has a seperate ground/power wires. I can ground the ground to the battery but do I hook the power for the bulb up to the power of the other power connection?
Also I have looked for the 02 wire cable and I think I found it to soder the air fuel guage to. Only thing I'm worried about is wiring to power properly I guess. I want to do a good job and not a crap job then there are no problems in the future I always say. I worry b/c my car is still under warranty until 100,000 KM so I'm pretty picky about warranty relate problems.
Can someone please advise as I would like to get these installed as soon as I can.
Regards,
Jarid
buy a haynes manual...they have wiring diagrams in the back...
remove the panel under the dash find the big bundle of wires going to the fuse box remove the looming off of them then find the pink wires you should use a test light these wires will be hot when the key is on in the run position .
here is a pic of my fuse box removed when i rewired my car for a 3100 but the pic should help you !
You don't need to run the ground to the battery everytime! Just attach it to any piece of metal in the car. It's the positive that should go to the battery if anything. It would look ugly with all these ground wires attached to the battery when all you had to do is drop a screw into some metal.
Jay
Shifted wrote:^ Never hook positive directly to the battery unless you like having to have a switch to turn your gauges on and off. Use the radio fuse, or if you can find an accessory fuse, use that.
The fact that it should be fused if going straight to the battery should be assumed in every post by now. But on the same note, you don't want to be overloading an existing circuit in the car, like running neons, gauges, radio from the same wire.
Jay
Well I dont really plan on realy hooking anything else up to the battery and it will be hidden so that wont really matter for just the ground wire. I was just inquiring about finding a power hookup for the positive of the guages. I will take a look in the fuse panel for a live wire for when the key is on it has power and when off it doesnt. But our cars use the little fuses so I cant stick it in one of the fuse holes can I then shove the fuse back into the spot?
Sorry kind of new on this wiring deal and dont want to screw anything up or have anything burn up on me. Also I have a test light so I will be testing to power. I'll try and find a closer ground then the battery if I can.
Regards,
J
^^^^ That's what I was saying, ANY piece of metal on the car is a ground. You don't have to go to the battery. On my gagse pillar I just put a screw with all the ground wires into the b-pillar and that's my groud right there.
Jay
Ok well that will be my ground wire then. Ill just put a screw into the metal pillar. But I still need to find power for these darm guages.
Regards,
J
Radio, that whats powering mine.
Well I tried to wire to the radio but that didnt work out. So I wired it to my old fog light switch. Worked out perfectly. So my guages aren't on unless my headlight switch is on and the little fog light switch is on. So if I dont want my guages on, I just use the fog light switch to turn them off. Works great.
Also I just drilled a hole into the pillar and put a screw in it for my ground. Wired things up great.
My air/fuel guage has power/ground and is on when I have the guages on currently it is just reading RICH. I guess that is b/c I dont have it wired up to my o2 wire yet. So it just reads on little light on rich. I dont think this will hurnt anything. At least I know it has power. Just need to find the damm o2 wire and route it through the firewall.
J
