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, Wed, 23 Aug 2006 03:58:07
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The gauge lights are the least of your worries. You want to connect the lights for them to the instrument panel lights so that the lighting is only on when the dash is on. If you want them to adjust with the rheostat so they are the same brightness as the dash then connect them to the green wire from the rheostat on the dash facia. If you don't care about adjusting brightness, connect them to the white/brown wire to the rheostat.
Take out the four long screws that hold the instrument facia in. Be sure you mark them as to which position you removed them from. Pull out the dash facia just enought to get your finger between the gauge panel and the back side of the facia. On the left side of the gauge panel there is a rubber gasket that fits in behind the facia. The wires from the rheostat are just behind it. You can pull them out between the dash facia and the gauge panel just enough to work on them. Cut away about 1/4" of the insulation from the wire that you have decided to connect to and solder a piece of new wire there to run to your new gauge lights. Wrap the connection with electrical tape. Feed the new wire down next to the steering column to an area underneath the dash so you can connect it to your new gauge lighting. Put an inline fuse there as well. You can connect the ground to any good ground source available. Putting the screws back in can be problematic. The left-most screw can be guided with a finger through the dash vent. The screw second from the right can be guided by removing the radio and the radio cage. The others (especially the right-most) are just a crap shoot and can be difficult to install properly.
That takes care of the lighting, now you need to connect the rest of the gauge wires. Yes, you should be able to connect to the cigarette lighter for power, but I believe that the cigarette lighter is not switched from the ignition. I could be wrong. I ran a new wire from #11 on the fuse box. According to Bently that is an extra fuse location.
You will need to run wires through the firewall at some point to connect to the things in the engine bay. First (unless you are a contortionist) remove the drivers seat, or at least move it all the way back and recline it fully. Then, under the hood, remove the wiring harness from the brake master cylindar and unbolt the coolant tank and move them out of the way. Just beneath the master cylindar you'll see three gromets with hoses going through the firewall. The center gromet has a hose with three wires in it. There is room to get at least three more wires in there. If you cut open the hose/conduit in an area just beneath where the coolant tank was you will be able to push wires through there to the inside of the car below the dash. You will obviously need to cut an opening in the hose inside the car as well for them to come out. I cut the hose about halfway through. Just enough to access the wires. Be sure to tape the openings in the hose/conduit back up afterward. The reason that the hose is in the gromet and not just wires is because without it water will leak into the cockpit. BEFORE CUTTING ANY HOSE BE SURE THAT IT IS NOT A VACUUM HOSE! Follow the hose to it's end and make sure it is a wire conduit.
posted by 169.226.99...
, Wed, 23 Aug 2006 03:58:07
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