guage hook up q's

[Trevor Engelsmeier]

i am going to be hooking up 3 guages, and just had some questions.  

1) can i run three guages and a radar detector off of the cig lighter? if not where is a constant on source other then that?  shoudl they be hooked up in parralel or series.

2) when hooking up the light in the guage, should i run them in series or parralell? ( going to hook up to dimmer swich like the v-faq)

thanx for any replies
trevor

[JamieSibley]

the cig lighter will supply more than enough power for a few gauges.

hook everything up in parallel, all the red wiers tied together and connected to the cig lighter, all the blacks tied together and hooked to ground.   And all the illumination lights tied together in parallel and hooked up per v-faq.

[Andrew Scott]

It depends what kind of gauges. If they are electronic gauges, I wouldn't do it. I run my EGT off of my stereo, and when it gets loud, I can watch the needle bounce with the music.

[Trevor Engelsmeier]

they will be simple mechanical guages, except fer my EGT (when i get it) so should i find another source for that one? or will only having one electrical guage be fine with the other two mechanical

thanx guys  

trevor

[John Hartman]

If Jamie says it will work, it will, but follow Andrews advice on the EGT.

However, there are lots and lots of power wires under there to draw from man.  Hell you could even run your own wire if you had to.  Make sure the grounds are good, the wires are solid with as few joints as possible and the connections are good.

[Andrew Scott]

If you want to be really safe, use a relay. Power wire straight to the battery, and the signal wire from an accessory circuit.

[Mike Schmid]

I found an empty terminal in the fuse block under the dash that goes hot with ignition, a male spade connector plugs into that and goes to a small block of fuses, one of those fuses supplies my guages with power.  Works good.  

I ran my guage lights off a splice from the "light" wire in the stereo harness... problem is it's just a switch.  I neglected to remember that the stock radio dims independent of the dash dimmer.  Use the VFAQ and hook the guage lights up to the dimmer switch so they dim properly.

[John Hartman]

for the guage light, I ran it from the light that is in the fog light switch.  Or one of those buttons in there, yea VFAQ it.

[Trevor Engelsmeier]

so just to be sure, the Cig lighter has a constant power supply, even during cranking?? cuz u need that for a boost guage to find '0' right

thanx

[John Hartman]

most boost guages are not electronic, they work off engine vac.  The electric part is just for the light.

Unless you have some sorta blingin Greedy or HK$ one, then forget what I said, it MIGHT be electronic.

[Andrew Scott]

most boost guages are not electronic, they work off engine vac.  The electric part is just for the light.

Unless you have some sorta blingin Greedy or HK$ one, then forget what I said, it MIGHT be electronic.

Even electronic gauges have mechanical senders  

[Trevor Engelsmeier]

k, so i got my boost guage hooked up, really clean install.  now, i thought that at idle it should read vacuum, then at deceleration, it should read more vacuum.  mine isn't so.  it reads 0 whenever my foot is off the pedal, idle or slowing down.  if i slow down, but still have my foot on the pedal a lil, it reads some vacuum.  it reads boost fine, i get 12-11 psi. (bcs mod)  

I have it hooked up to one of the three solenoids on the driver side.  (its hooked up to the one closest to the passanger side, the tube that goes to the intake, all balck tube)  and was just wondeirng if that is the right spot.  

anyways

thanx

trev

[Martin Raska]

Yeah you should be reading vacuum at idle and ~30mm Hg minus intake losses so 26-28mm Hg under full deacceleration.  Sounds to me like you have it hooked up to the upper side of the solenoid?  The solenoids only open under positive pressure so that is why you are reading atmospheric normally.  Hook it up to the lower side and everything should work correctly.

[Trevor Engelsmeier]

well, there is a tube that comes right off the itake, near the fuel rail, that goes to the last solenoid.  i have the T in betweent the manifold, and solenoid.  is that the right place??

i could T it off near the throttle body, but this way there is less nylon tubing runnin around in the engine bay

trev

[JamieSibley]

I had mine leak out the fitting on the back of the gauge. It read almost 0 at idle, but showed some readings while on boost. That could be your problem.

Sounds like you are tee-ing off the fuel pressure solenoid, as long as your tee is on the piece of tube that connects directly to the manifold, then thats the right place.

try pulling the tube off the intake, and hooking the gause tube up directly and idle the car, dont driving it like that though.