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(I posted this in the Lighting/Electronics Forum and no repsonse........ The picture I have below is a diagram I made from paintshop....I dont know why it is so small...I used photobucket to show it.)

I have a volt, A/Fuel, and W. Temp Phantom Autometer Gauges and they are not working properly. Here is my set up...

I have the white/power wires from the Volt and W. Temp Gauges spliced and sent to the dimmer switch. The ground wires are spliced as well and sent to the frame of the car. Now...the power/red wires for the Volt, W. Temp, and Air/Fuel are spliced and sent to the ciggarette lighter power wire. The sender wires/purple for A/F is spliced into the blue/red wire on the O2 sensor... The sender wire for the W. Temp I had spliced and sent to the white(or faded blue)&red wire on the water temp sensor.

The results

When I turn the key to the "on" position the volt meter goes up to 8 volts, and the others do nothing...I crank the car up turn on the lights, when I turn the dimmers down the guage lights get brighter and vice versa. And the A/F guage...lets just says it does nothing but just relax in the pod. Please if someone could tell me what to do...Here is to show you some sort fo Diagram of my wiring scheme. I am sorry it is so small but photobucket shrunk it. I can email the full size if someone is willing to help me.

~Jay

OMG, I typed a whole response, but my computer messed up and I lost it all


Anyway, I just installed my guages last night too. I wired the lights as you did and have the same problem with the dimmer. I am assuming that it is a simple fix of changing the black wire to the power and the white to the ground.

Also, make sure you used the solid red wire on the dimmer since it is the true dimmed 12 volts.

As for your sensor wires I couldn't tell you if you are right/wrong/ or just have bad connections.

You do need to use silver soldier and heat shrink on all your connections. If you need more info on how to soldier let me know and I'll post it here.

The dimmer switch operates by having 12 Volts to one side of the lamp at all times, and adjusting 2-12 Volts to the other side of the lamp. What you have there is the OPPOSITE by having a ground polarity at one side of the lamp (so it will work exactly the wrong way).

What I'd suggest is to remove the wiring from the gauge lights and:
- splice into the RED / BLACK wire in the back of the dimmer and run that to one side of the new gauge lights;
- splice into the RED wire in the back of the dimmer and run that to one side of the new gauge lights.
NO GROUND AT THOSE LAMPS.

Regarding the water temp, I thought the wire colour to splice into should be BLACK / ORANGE. Sure you got the right wire?
http://eunos30x.com/info/1993%20Wiring%20Diagrams.pdf
Figure 9, Grid position A32, A33

So the light on the guages will have no ground. That is new to me. I was an electrician (not much low voltage, but...) for several years and never hooked a lamp up that way <scratches head>

Thanks for the info Grants. Learn something every day.

Pat & Grants...thanks for the help, I didnt have enough day light tonight...I had to change out a radiator min my GS...tomorrow if the weather isnt crazy like it was today I will try to rewire,a nd see what I come up with...if you did yours today Pat, let me know how it turns out...and Grants...that wiring diagram is the bomb. As far as my Air/Fuel Gauge , I think I may have fried it...because it was working good when I first got it, Io heard they are very sensitive.

PATDIESEL wrote:So the light on the guages will have no ground. That is new to me. I was an electrician (not much low voltage, but...) for several years and never hooked a lamp up that way <scratches head>

Thanks for the info Grants. Learn something every day.

So you have 12V on one side of the lamp and the higher you increase the voltage through the dimmer on the other side, the lower the difference in polarity across the lamp so the lamp dims. Yep bit strange but there you have it...

Weird, but makes perfect sense.

I haven't messed with them yet, but will tomorrow. Tonight I was working on installing my garage doors. A custom bi-fold closet door type, it was AtlMX3's idea. I then drew it out so I could look for problems. Then built the doors and am now working on the installation. It is pretty neat. They don't go up like a normal garage door so they don't block my overhead lights if I want the door open. The down side is that they are manual. Best part is that they cost me about 3-400 instead of 2000 for an insulated garage door. Oh, yeah and my garage is soon to be heated and A/Ced.

Hey Pat...I know its been months...but I finally got off my butt and fixed my volt meter gauge. I simple have the red positive wire wired straight to the positive termial on the cigarette lighter, and ground to the frame of the car and shows accurate readings...as for my A/F mixture guage I haven't tested as autometer suggest, but I am pretty sure it is fried. The Water isnt connected at all, it came with a kit that will replace the water temp sensor on our cars...I may just sell the water temp. gauge and buy something I dont already have on the instrument panel. Hit me up if you need something

~Jay

I spliced my power and lighting supplies from the stereo harness and didnt have any problems with the lights and voltage readings.

just incase this comes up in a future search.

i ran my guages to the power line going to the stereo and everything is good i also ran them to a switch so that the light is not on all the time i looks cooler that way when someone pulls up and you turn on your swithes.....personal opinion

i had a lighting feed at the stereo so there was no need to install switch, the stereo harness has a lighting supply so that when you turn on your dash lights the head unit ( aftermarket) dimms so the display is not so bright and dazzling at night.

They I have mine wired...if I put the car in ACC then the volt meter works...when I cut my lights on, the gauge lights come on...I am pretty satisfied with the connection...I just really wished my A/F gauge was working...