Tidy gauge wiring

[ManySHOs]

Hi everyone

I have 6 gauges to wire up. The harnesses are already
run through the firewall and attached to their
respective senders. I have run a 14 gauge red wire to
the fuse box on the firewall that will supply power. I
will probably fuse this connection close to the
fusebox and run it to a relay. The relay will be
switched from either the moonroof motor or the
cigarette lighter. Can anyone recommend any other
switched leads?

My dilemma; I need to supply 12v, ground and
illumination to all 6 of these gauges. How can I do
this neatly and correctly? I actually considered
getting 3 barrier strips; 1 for 12v, 1 for ground and
1 for illumination. Once those are in place, I could
simply wire up each gauge to the barrier strips (after
fusing the gauges as well) and call it a day. Suggestions?

The 3 autometers that I removed from my car were a
tangled mess of wire taps, crimped butt connectors and
other horrific atrocities that I dare not speak of.
Now that I have 6 gauges to go in, I want to keep it
neat and tidy. I've gotten really particular these
days; I solder and heat shrink everything. Since I
started doing that, I've never had a problem with
stuff that I've wired up.

Thanks
Ian

 

[HoustinoJillian]

why not run the wires to the furthest away gauge, and wire the rest of them in series? you could strip about a 1/2 inch fro mthe main wire, separate the strands, pass a smaller wire's stripped end though, split that and wrap it aroudn to the left and right, solder it all and shrink wrap, so it would end up looking like a Y with one short end. repeat that for each gauge in order. if you used a larger gauge wire for the "main" stem i think it would work great. there was some writeup on someone who did that for a 3 gauge pod w/pics.. i'll look for it after dinner

 

[ManySHOs]

why not run the wires to the furthest away gauge, and wire the rest of them in series? you could strip about a 1/2 inch fro mthe main wire, separate the strands, pass a smaller wire's stripped end though, split that and wrap it aroudn to the left and right, solder it all and shrink wrap, so it would end up looking like a Y with one short end. repeat that for each gauge in order. if you used a larger gauge wire for the "main" stem i think it would work great. there was some writeup on someone who did that for a 3 gauge pod w/pics.. i'll look for it after dinner

I considered that; the only problem is that I couldn't move my gauges around unless I had a lot of slack in the harness (i.e. if I mount them in a DIN spot now and want to relocate them to the EATC later).

By the way I used to solder stuff by wrapping wires. I did some reading online about different techniques for soldering wire together and found that the best connections are usually made when the leads are tinned by drawing solder through the wire; essentially you tin the tip of the soldering iron, place the iron on one side of the lead and the solder on the other side. When it gets hot enough, the solder will flow into the lead. Once that's done, the leads are place side by side (parallel to eachother) and heated up. The solder will flow across and the connection is made. Its tricky at first and requires a jig of sorts (I hold my leads in adjustable wrenches; they work great) but the end result is a really strong connection that shouldn't fail. I've been removing old stuff from my dash that I wired up before; I've found really loose connections with blobs of solder on them that were causing all sorts of problems.
Soldering is like knitting for me. Its sort of therapeutic.

Thanks for the suggestion though. Keep them coming!

Ian

 

[SHO92]

Ian, the barrier strip isn't a bad idea. Easily removable and you could make a small harness for each gauge(I'd do that anyway). Also use something like techflex to loom the harnesses. It's much nicer looking then plastic split loom, and it's a lot more flexible.

BTW, the cig lighter is 12v constant, not swtiched. Since the gauges are going in the dash, use a switched wire thats already in the dash instead of running one all the way from the moonroof. The radio has a switched lead, or you could get it directly from the ignition tumbler. Just make sure that your turn signals still work when you're done. <-- inside joke between Ian and I.

 

[ManySHOs]

I picked up terminal strips today from Radio Shack. (Barrier strips won't do what I want them to do and terminal strips have recessed screws that shouldn't contact anything but the wire). I have a good feeling about this!

Ian

 

[SASHO91]

that should work without too much hassel. the only hassel now is the wiring for them...

another option (that is kinda far fetched) is to run from the battery, to a toggle switch. then just switch on the gauges as you start the car up.... you could run them in series, w/ one toggle switch (maybe alittle bit bigger switch, and a 12-10g wire wouldnt hurt).
just a thought....

 

[HoustinoJillian]

to move it you could always cut the main wires, run a new one and solder it to be connected in the new place