need help with auto meter gauges

[1moretoy]

I'm spending my Friday night wiring up my gauges and cant figure out what to do With the lamp terminal on the back of the speedo and tach. The directions say to hook it up to 12volt dash lighting but I thought that's where the twist in lights would go. Can anyone tell me what to do. Thanks

[1moretoy]

And here is a pic of the front.

[bigmac73]

i am digging that , is that whole setup available or did you have to manufacture the back bracket ect ect..

[1moretoy]

Originally Posted by bigmac73

i am digging that , is that whole setup available or did you have to manufacture the back bracket ect ect..

That is how it is designed. Brothers trucks and a couple other places sell the same bezel. I took it to a metal finishing shop and had it polished. They only come in brushed aluminum.

[dec010974]

hello 1moretoy. the light bulbs of all the guages will (white Wire) will be connected to the light switch in your vehicle. The black wire will go to ground. when you turn lights on, pull the head light switch, your dash light will come on (autometer guages). if i remember correctly this will be a brown wire coming from your head light switch plug.

[1moretoy]

Originally Posted by dec010974

hello 1moretoy. the light bulbs of all the guages will (white Wire) will be connected to the light switch in your vehicle. The black wire will go to ground. when you turn lights on, pull the head light switch, your dash light will come on (autometer guages). if i remember correctly this will be a brown wire coming from your head light switch plug.

So do I disregard the lamp terminal on the spedo and tach? They are the only two gauges with those terminals.

[Tillik]

Good info. Gauges look great

[VetteVet]

Assuming that you have a 1967 to 1972 truck which your dash bezel indicates, your dash lights would be illuminated by a gray wire in the cluster harness plug.
There should be 2 of them in the same pin connector, One of those will come from the fuse panel lights, fuse ( PNL LTS) and the other one will continue on over to the heater control panel and glove box light if you have one.

This would be the correct spot to tie into for the two lights in question, however there are only four lights in the stock cluster and you have five from the gauges plus the two you want to add. This might be more amp draw than the small fuse can handle. You probably would be fine just adding a higher capacity fuse by a couple of amps if the stock fuse can't handle the load.

The power for the dash lamps originates with the orange wire in the fuse panel that powers the key off circuits, i.e. dome lights , brakes, and tail lights.
The brown wire does indeed power the tail lights, but it is separate from the dash lights. The orange wire powers the tail lights but it also powers the variable resistor ( dimmer ) for the dash lights. This resistor then sends power to the fuse panel PNL LTS fuse via a green wire to complete the circuit. The dk green wire is next to the light blue one going to the switch.



If you tie into the brown wire for the tail lights you won't be able to adjust the brightness of the two lights.
below is a couple of diagrams to illustrate the circuit.



This one shows the path of the orange wire to the headlight switch and the green wire that I referred to. Ignore the arrows in the top of the diagram.



What type of connector will you be using to connect the dash harness and the truck harness?

I believe that I would just tie the tach and speedo lights into the other gauge light wires (white) and upgrade the fuse if necessary.