autometer gauge- missing wiring, help?

[HoustinoJillian]

i've been able to figure out why the oil pressure gauge doesn't work in my new car. simply put, the wires are missing.
does anyone know where i can find the wiring that plugs into these plugs:

and wires onto this gauge back:

i believe they're autometer phantom gauges.


the wiring can't be just spliced into the plugs, i tried every possible combination, there has to be something on the missing wiring that hooks up tho the rightmost post (sender), and i believe the other 2 are ground and power... i can't find replacement wiring on the autometer site, am i going to have to buy a whole new gauge? or can this wiring be found somewhere?

 

[F-22 Raptor SHO]

You dont need to get any new guages as the gauge didnt come with wires, just a gauge, some fittings and the sending unit. What you do need is some 18 ga. wire from the store to run from the sender to your gauge as well as the power to that gauge. I can only assume your gauge sender is attached at the rear of the engine on the drivers side split off of the sender for the idiot light. This is a very easy install. I did not eliminate my idiot light and did not use any stock wiring. I did use some brass fittings from ACE hardware to split off the oil port in the block.

 

[HoustinoJillian]

sorry, i'm not really following you.... the wiring that i have coming int othe is all figured out save for 2 mystery lines. the ones going into that smaller plug. the larger plug's wires are the same as the power and ground for voltmeter, so i'd assune that they are power and ground for the oil gauge. the 2 lines that are from the smaller black plug are what i am confused about, i tried hooking them up to the connections on the oil gauge in every way i could, and it still didn't work correctly, leading me to believe that there's something between that plug and the gauge??

 

[F-22 Raptor SHO]

sorry, i'm not really following you.... the wiring that i have coming int othe is all figured out save for 2 mystery lines. the ones going into that smaller plug. the larger plug's wires are the same as the power and ground for voltmeter, so i'd assune that they are power and ground for the oil gauge. the 2 lines that are from the smaller black plug are what i am confused about, i tried hooking them up to the connections on the oil gauge in every way i could, and it still didn't work correctly, leading me to believe that there's something between that plug and the gauge??

I'm running under the assumption that the guage never worked or it is a new gauge install. Did it ever work since you bought the car? If you hooked the wires up "every which way", then there is also a possibility that you cooked the guage as the autometer instructions for installing the gauges warns heavily that you are not to run power to the sending unit post by accident or you will damage the guage. They even go so far as to put a red tag on the sending unit post saying that.

I only know about installing a gauge from scratch using the wire diagrams from autometer. For the gauge to function, one wire goes from the sending unit to the gauge, one wire goes from the gauge ground pin to a ground near the sending unit, and one wire goes to the power pin on the guage which goes to a source of power when ignition is on.

There is also the light wires which you simply run to the dimmer switch, but you dont need those to make the gauge work.

I can only assume the previous owner had attempted to use the stock wires you see behind the gauge to make the gauge work without running new wires....this attempt was apparantly unsuccessful.

 

[HoustinoJillian]

i hooked it up in every combination OTHER than putting the power on the marked terminal, cause that was obviously wrong... (i paid attention to the red tag) i'll have to look at the whole thing again tonight after i get out of work, and trace it back to the sender rather than jsut looking at the wiring thats inside the car.

I bought the car on sunday, from Chris Olivera, but he said that the guages never worked when he had the car... so i guess the owner before him did somethin wrong i dunno.

when you're looking at the pictures, ignore the gauge on the right, thats the volt meter, and thats fine... the oil gauge wasn't wired to anything when i took it out, if only i could find the wiring that hookd up between the gauge and those plugs...

 

[HoustinoJillian]

btw i beleive this to be the electrical version of the gauge, NOT the mechanical version, if that helps at all

 

[AutoSHO]

That wiring is not meant for the Autometer gauges. There wouldn't ever be a reason for a plug like that on the gauge.

The easy way to fix this is to run two small jumper wires from the voltmeter over to the oil pressure gauge for power, and run a single wire out into the engine compartment and hook it up to the Autometer sender when you acquire it.

 

[HoustinoJillian]

hmm ok, new question then, anyone have any idea what in the heck these plugs are meant for? they're run into the car wrapped in the same tape that the volt gauge and lights are run from, and even share a plug on the other end with these wires

 

[AutoSHO]

Does your cigarette lighter work?

I know I've seen those plugs before... Can't place them though.

 

[HoustinoJillian]

wow you, my friend, are a genious, and I feel kinda dumb.

the cigarette lighter no longer exists, because thats where the gauges were mounted, so those 2 plugs have got to be power for the Cig lighter, and power for the cigarette lighter light/ashtray light.. now to figure out what happened to the oil pressure sender and wire...

 

[AutoSHO]

Chances are the oil pressure sender didn't get put on the new engine when they swapped it.

 

[HoustinoJillian]

very good call, and fortunately i may have found one, hopefully...

 

[HoustinoJillian]

ok now i have a question about the voltage gauge, the way its wired i think it's taking the place of the cigarette lighter, so it is getting constant power. therefore its not a guage, its simply going to read 12.5 forever. does anyone know how to pass the wiring through to somewhere that leads from the alternator ( is there somewhere i can tap into this in the interior, without wiring int othe engine bay?)

 

[SHO92]

You can wire the voltage gauge to a different wire, like the radio power wire. Or you can get actual battery voltage(what you'd really want anyway) and still have it turn off with the car by using a relay. I have the relay set to turn on/off with the car, but it pulls the actual voltage from the main wire to the under hood fuse panel.

 

[HoustinoJillian]

i thought it would be best to measure the actual output of the alternator, not? especially since i have UDP's it would be interesting to know what the acessories were running at...

 

[SHOZ123]

To get a good switch source of real time voltage get it from the hot in run and accessory wire at the ignition switch.

Good heavy wire and easy to get to.

 

[HoustinoJillian]

good to know, thanks