Thread: A pillar and guages

I am continuing my interior mods, My next mod will be the a pillar and the guages. Ill get the boost gauge of course the digital air fuel mixture guage and probably the oil pressure guage, anyways how is installing the guages and stuff, i dont know anything about electronics. Also is their a write up for this if not their should be that would be helpful to alot of people starting out and want to do this for themselves.

IMHO a/f gauges are just for the purdy colors!

They arent hard to do. Do yourself a favor though, go to Advanced Auto or any auto parts store and buy you something called Add A Circuit. One for each gauge. It will make getting power to the gauges much much easier.

I dont know if there are any how to's, but I did have some information on tying the gauges into the existing dimming circuit.

Originally Posted by Toasty

you really think it's neccessary to have an add-a circuit for EACH gauge?

i'm intending to run mine off the power drop behind the glove box

Power drop works well. I have three gauges powered by it. For a clean install ZZP has a connector that plugs into the power drop. If you have an Aeroforce, then do the add-a-circuit (and don't use it to power anything else). I had fun figuring that out. D'oh!

OQCGP :: Ontario Quebec Club Grand Prix

Gauges

Lighting Your Gauges

I suggest finding something other than the A/F gauge. If you are looking to see a light-show each time you drive the car, then go for it. If not, then find a guage that can be at least somewhat usefull (Tranny Temp, volt, aeroforce, etc).

The can be time consuming but there not too hard to do....

I have a triple pillar w/ Volts, Oil Presure, Boost/Vac...

The Volts required:

-12v switched power
-ground
-12v dimmer power for lighting
-ground for lighting

The Oil Pressure required:

-12v switched power
-Wire from gauge to sender installed on the motor (Electric)
-ground
-12v dimmer power for lighting
-ground for lighting

The Boost/Vac required:

-12v dimmer power for lighting
-ground for lighting
no other wiring due to it being mechanical (used a vacuum line hooked up to the motor)

There you have it.

Another thing I highly recommend you doing. If you get the Autometer gauges the stock clear blub in them makes the color a white/yellish color at night a simple and cheap fix (under $5) is go to you local parts store and get a 194R blub which will be red colored blubs. IMO they match the Grand Prix red lighting interior perfect! You only need 3 blubs and they take less than 20 seconds to replace. Some guys mess with LEDs and such, thats up to you. So far my setup has worked great for years...

if you are going for an Air/Fuel gauge......my opinion....get a wideband.

Yeah, I do think a Add a Circuit would be needed for each gauge. Sure, you can power them all from the power drop or one power source. And while the gauges probably dont add that much load to a circuit, even with the lights on, I would prefer not to loose all the gauges at once if the power source fails or if the fuse blows.

Its just me and how I would do things. I have each of my gauges lighted from the same power source (as the how to shows that was linked above) but each of the gauges are powered from separate fuses.

Is it absolutely necessary? Probably not. Is it extra work? Most definitely. Is it worth it? To me it was, but thats an individual thing. If I could have wired in brand new fused circuits to the fuse block to make it look completely stock, I would have done that. Extra work, yes, but its something I would have done if the option had been available to me.

Originally Posted by Toasty

i purchased the zzp mating harness, but after i did, i figured out that one can buy the parts and make your own for cheaper... i posted the required parts in my stickied thread in the tech lounge on delphi connectors....

Ah ha! Even better.

Soo im gonna be buying the pillar and gauges tomorrow soo what will i need other then jsut the gauges ? i will be getting a boost/vaccum gauge, oil pressure gauge and a voltage meter gauge.