Wiring gauges into Light Control & Fuse harness help
 

I am working on getting a set of Perrin gauges installed in the car, and following the directions on RallySportDirect blog, used the dashboard dimmer switch. However, after getting everything spliced together, the gauges do not power on when the car is turned on.

I found the wiring diagram on the net, but to be honest, I don't know what I'm really looking for.

http://virtualelephant.com/wp-conten...t_rheostat.png

For the Perrin gauge, I used the following:

Illumination --> Pin 2 (Purple)
Ignition --> Fuse harness wire Red/Blue stripe
GND --> Dash ground
Constant power --> Fuse harness wire Light Green

I verified with a multimeter the Light Green wire has 12V at all times. I also verified the Red/Blue wire from the fuse harness only has 12V power when the car is turned on. The ground wire is not spliced, but rather just connected with the other ground wires under the dash.

I've redone all the connections at this point, verified there is enough bare wire for the plastic splice connector and re-crimped down all the connections. I am still not getting anything on the gauges though.

Could anyone with more experience tell me what I should be doing differently?

Thanks in advance.

Ground directly to the steel dash structure, i drilled a tiny hole on the left side and used an eyelet connector and a self tapping screw. Test your connections with a test light not a meter. A single strand of wire will carry voltage but not amps. Those splice connectors are junk Imo. Take a razor blade and strip a 1/2" section out of the Insulation, wrap 1" of the spice wire repeatedly as tightly as possible, now solder . This type of connection is bulletproof.

What Splice connectors are you using.

Is it the ones that you put one wire on one side of the wire and the other oem wire in the other side and just snap the clip? or did you physically cut the wire and crimp it with a crimp tool?

-I'm not saying I can fix ur problem but I am an electrician if it makes you feel better

I am going to bed so I will write this for you encase youre using those square clip splice connectors. Throw those things in the trash. Had a local bro come over with his valenti 4th brake light not working. They sent him those cheap splice connectors and it wasnt making a good connection. Be a man, take some wire strippers, cut the wire in half lol, and use something like crimp splice connectors or wire nuts. (alot of people talk super bad about wire nuts on cars but if done right there is no problem inside the vehicle). also to test if its the connectors (if you are able to do this) strip the wires, twist them together and leave the bare wire twisted together open and try the gauges. Ur not gonna start a fire or get shocked. Just a way to find your problem.

Thanks to you both. They are likely the cheap connectors, so I will man up and get the soldering iron out. I was loath to do so inside the car yesterday, but looks like I will be.

First of all you shouldn't be trying to draw any power from any point in the circuit shown above, they're not designed to power up multiple items, they don't supply the current you need, it's only the purple wire that you use to dim the gage at night. Get your power straight from the fuse box

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@tofurun

I soldered all of the connections together today. When I connect the multimeter to the end of the Perrin harness, I read 12V for all of the connections except the constant power (light green wire from the fuse harness). I know before I started all of this Saturday that it was reading 12V when the car was turned off.

Do you (or anyone) else know which fuse may have blown? The manual for the fuses under the dash and under the hood aren't clear which fuse it could be. As of now, the car starts just fine, all of the dash lights work -- (dimmer, radio, headlights, fogs, etc) -- I just don't get any reading on the Perrin gauges.

Thanks for your help.

I dont think there should be a constant power. Are you checking this while the car is in the on position? there shouldnt be any power anywhere when the car is off and the "constant" power should be reading when the car is turned on

Ended up being the fuse for the keyless entry (#24) in the main fuse box. Once I swapped in a new fuse -- viola! gauges worked.

Thanks to @tofurun @StegaDragon and @FTA_Dave for the replies.

Thread closed.

Good deal. If that fuse starts blowing from having more pull u can always bump it up safely by 5 or 10 no worries.