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By popular demand -- gauge install how-to

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  #16  
Old 05-19-2003 | 03:38 PM
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From: Athens, Ga
Tim Skelton:

You have won the "Smart Lightning Guy of the Day" award...

Later will come your free flight tickets and motel room reservations for 4 free weeks of Navy Seal training...you have to sign a body damage disclaimer though.

Very good job...
 
  #17  
Old 05-19-2003 | 08:23 PM
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From: The People's Republic of Los Angeles
Originally posted by Fast Gator
. . . Btw.......I always knew that Alphadoggy was one cool cat and sharp dresser
George is a great guy. In contrast to the crotchety old man role he plays on the Lightning forums, in person he is incredibly warm and engaging. And he drives like a bat out of hell.
 
  #18  
Old 05-19-2003 | 09:16 PM
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From: Greater Boston
nice post

i'll add some things if you don't mind....

1)the autometer pod will fit, just requires so custom engineering

2)i had trouble getting the guages to ground.....connected all the grounds to one common ground wire, ran it through the firewall and grounded it in the engine bay. No good grounds inside the cab

3)connect all the positive leads and negative leads together and run one common positive lead, and negative lead, instead of 3 seperate. This will cut down on the thickness of wires to run down through the dash. I had a hard time fishing them through, real tight.

4)Absolutely allow yourself a weekend to complete. Especially when nothing goes right like with what I had, also had a wire pop out of the connector enough to cause the fuel pressure guage not to work, how i found it and figured out the problem, i'll never know.
 
  #19  
Old 05-20-2003 | 12:50 AM
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Re: nice post

Originally posted by tallimeca
. . . 2)i had trouble getting the guages to ground.....connected all the grounds to one common ground wire, ran it through the firewall and grounded it in the engine bay. No good grounds inside the cab

3)connect all the positive leads and negative leads together and run one common positive lead, and negative lead, instead of 3 seperate. This will cut down on the thickness of wires to run down through the dash. I had a hard time fishing them through, real tight.

. . .
How did you know you had a ground problem? The boost gauge and lighting seem to be working fine, but I have no baseline to determine if the temp gauges are reading correctly.

Why not run the wires up the side of the dash like I did? I don't see any downside, you can pull it out any time, and the wiring is visible the whole way.
 
  #20  
Old 05-20-2003 | 02:22 AM
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From: NEW JERSEY
Originally posted by Tim Skelton
Just taking after my idol -- Stan Martin (Ruslow):



Gratuitous photo -- Alphadoggy taking my photo at a Solo 2 event:



Stan is Definately the MAN. Good chioce of mentor.


Check out that Z/28 behind ya. DAMN , those are some wide *** tires.
 
  #21  
Old 05-21-2003 | 12:27 AM
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Correction to my how-to

My instructions as of yesterday had the pinout for the Radio Shack switches backwards. I was reading the multimeter backwards. When I saw the differential temp increasing at a stop light the light bulb in my head went off.



I apologize in advance for anyone who printed out the instructions and wired the switches backwards.
 
  #22  
Old 05-21-2003 | 03:01 AM
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From: New Orleans
Which type of techflex did you get and where did you get it.
 
  #23  
Old 05-21-2003 | 08:10 AM
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From: The People's Republic of Los Angeles
Originally posted by beastie
Which type of techflex did you get and where did you get it.
www.pacrad.com

It may be available cheaper elsewhere, but these guys are local to me.
 
  #24  
Old 05-21-2003 | 06:08 PM
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From: CT.
Pure genius !
 
  #25  
Old 05-21-2003 | 09:18 PM
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From: Greater Boston
hmmm

How did you know you had a ground problem?

The temp guage was going nutty, then when it pegge out, i knew something was wrong. Same with the fuel pressure. So I ran the line into the cab and connected them up......perfect! I talked to some other folks and they too have had issues with grounding th guages.

Why not run the wires up the side of the dash like I did?
Could you please take a couple more pics of how you ran the wires? Aside from how i ran mine, anything less looked like a hackjob to me. On my setup, you can't see 1 wire anywhere. Right down the a-pillar and through the dash.
 
  #26  
Old 05-21-2003 | 09:40 PM
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Great job! Excellent ideas!!!
 
  #27  
Old 05-21-2003 | 10:01 PM
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From: The People's Republic of Los Angeles
Re: hmmm

Originally posted by tallimeca
. . . Could you please take a couple more pics of how you ran the wires? Aside from how i ran mine, anything less looked like a hackjob to me. On my setup, you can't see 1 wire anywhere. Right down the a-pillar and through the dash.


I can't take any more pics right now, as the whole thing is put back together. But in the pic above, the door weatherstrip, lower dash panel, door sill, and kick panel have all been removed. The sender harness comes up from next to the sill, snakes behind the e-brake pedal area, and then simply tucked in between the side of the dash and the body, with the business end ending up at the front corner. The door weatherstrip and kick panel slip right over it. No fishing, no fighting, and it can be removed in an instant for reworking. The main harness takes exactly the same path, but starts from the fuse panel/headlight switch area.

Wish I had a better photo handy -- would have spared me the 1,000 words. If this still does not make sense, let me know and I'll see if I can find any better photos.
 



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