So Bryant wired in my 3 gauges (temp, oil, volt) and they worked great up until I installed my tachometer today. He ran wired for ground, accessory power and dash lights. Today I just spliced into the same wires for the tachometer (acc power, ground, dash lighting and one going to negative coil). So I went to turn on the headlights to see the backlighting and for some reason when I turn on the headlights the volmeter needle actually goes the other way (all the way counter clockwise) and the lights on the dashes don't work of course. But all the gauges work fine as long as the headlights are off. I should mention that a few days ago my stock instrument lights and my radio stopped working but I think that's due to some blown fuses after getting a jump start. Still need to figure out which fuses I need to replace and what kind to get.
thanks darren. mo, disconnect the wires on the tach one at a time and see if the problem corrects it self. once you figure out wich wire is causing the problem then give that wire its own dedicated source. also if you dash light fuse was blown the lights on the gages should not work. its possible that with the fuse blown when you turn on the lights power has found another path to ground through the light circuts.
dang it darren, you had to wake up the genius! I was trying to keep it on the low, low hoping Bryant wouldn't read this. As always, thanks Bryant, I'll try that. Hey anyone know what kinda glass fuses I need?
I went and bought some fuses. Looked through all the fuses and they were all ok. Replaced one that was a little discolored but still intact. Alas, nothing has changed. Should I be looking for a ground problem?
mo, the radio should have its own fuse. its either in the back of the radio or in its wireing harness. im pretty sure thats the wire i taped for the volt meter, but before the fuse. so if the volt meter works then there is some of the power circut figured out. as for the lights not working, the first thing i would check is the dimmer in the head light switch. twist it and see if the lights in the dash come on or flicker on and off.
I will have to go and check on the fuse for the radio. I played around with the headlight switch, twisting, pulling, pushing, but nothing happened. I even disconnected all the wires from the tachometer I installed and that didn't solve the problem. So something happened while I was trying to install the tachometer I guess.
ok very interesting update . . . so it was daytime and I was driving the car . . . like I said, all the gauges function. I pulled on the headlight knob and the voltmeter immediately sinks all the way counterclockwise but car drives fine. I decided to turn the headlight clockwise all the way to dim the lights and the voltmeter works!! but then I turn it even a little counterclockwise and the voltmeter flatten out again to zero. What's up with that?
the ground is an easy thing for me to check out, I'll report back hopefully tonite. thanks Bryant, if you're free this monday or tuesday I'll swing by.
So I spent some time tracing back all the wires and all the connections were good. I had grounded the black wire to the heater blower ground and that was working so I was scratching my head. I looked at the splice connection Bryant did for me, and I guess I had pulled it off and when I reconnected it the metal tab had bent so it wasn't grounding. Problem solved! Thanks guys
