[JoDurhamRA1972Goat455]

I have an aftermarket guage cluster with no wiring instructions, that has battery, water, and oil pressure. two out of three guages work the battery/charging does not appear to work, it looks to be wired at the guage. do they use the current wire harness? or do you run a seperate wire to the alt.? should I look for a wire off under the hood or dash?

[JoDurhamRA1972Goat455]

I have an aftermarket guage cluster with no wiring instructions, that has battery, water, and oil pressure. two out of three guages work the battery/charging does not appear to work, it looks to be wired at the guage. do they use the current wire harness? or do you run a seperate wire to the alt.? should I look for a wire off under the hood or dash?

[428GTO70]

Im thinking that most volt meters just tie into a power wire to get its reading. Should just be a power and a ground? A power wire directly from the alternator main power wire would give the best reading though. Then again you dont want it on all the time either so it should be on a switched power wire. Hmmm dunno. I would try to trace the wires that come off it under the dash and see where they go first. How many wires are on the gauge and what are the wire colors.


GR-RRR!

[george kujanski]

Aftermarket gauges usually have an ammeter for monitoring the state of charge. If this is your case, I would recommend changing it to a voltmeter for the following reasons:
A voltmeter could be connected directly to your under-dash ignition wiring with small gauge wire. An ammeter has to pass the full charging (or load current) and as such, needs to be connected with large wire. You need to cut the appropriate wire under hood, route two large wires to the ammeter thru the firewall, etc., mure of a pain. A voltmeter will show you the charging conditon with a lot less hassle, and a cleaner install.

Regards, Georg