couple of electrical questions

[Tom]

Im re-wiring some stuff to get it looking cleaner. Instead of grounding in the engine bay, I want to ground a few things to a screw in the floor under the carpet, or else behind the seat not touching anything. Are either of these places a good one to ground?

Second, the hot wires to the instrument cluster. Theres a bundle of wires going everywhere, so Im a little confused. According to my haynes, it seems the solid green wire going from the light switch to the instrument cluster plug is the hot when switched on wire that I need to tap into to light up my extra guages. Is this correct? But in the manual, it shows a fuse block between the switch and panel, and my truck dosent have one. Any ideas?

[Tom]

crap! I just tried the "ignition" terminals in my fuse block [the two open ones for 12v keyed sources] and they are dead terminals. So that outs that plan. Which wire do I need for the 12v keyed on source to the gauges?

[Bowed]

If I remember right (?) I think you have a grey wire on the light switch that goes to the illumination lights on the instrument cluster and that wire has the rehostat action to power on and also raise or dim the dash & gauge lamp brightness when the lights are on . On your grounding question I do not understand what you mean when you say " not touching anything " ? , you can set up a ground almost any where that is nuteral has long has you make sure that point goes back to a solid chassis ground . You could run a terminal thru the firewall and connect to the engine to firewall ground strap and connect your wires directly to that terminal under the dash .

[swervin ervin]

Bowed is right, it's a gray wire which feeds the instrument panel lights. You need to tie into this wire in order to be able to dim/brighten them. Also, if you just use an ignition wire, the lights will be on when the others are not.

[Tom]

When I said "not touching anything" I was refrering to my wanting to put the ground under the carpet and didnt know if the carpet touching it would disrupt the ground.

Thanks for the info guys. Now do any of you know which wire provides the 12v power source to the gauges for them to work?

[PHOENIX]

Tom: cant you trace the wire that is already used on your gauges? Or does this truck have the factory gauges? You dont want to hook up your 12v power to the light wire. I cant remember the colors but I do remember that the book wasnt completely correct for my truck when I installed the AutoMeters. Do you have a test light and or a volt meter? It should be easy to test.

A ground under the carpet will not cause a problem unless it gets bumped or moved alot. You dont want it to come loose. My amps ar mounted under the seat on the carpet. The ground is under the carpet. I have both amps hooked to one ground. I have not had any problem since install a couple years ago. Just make sure its away from your feet or somewhere were it may become loose.

[Tom]

no eddie I cant trace it. I have stock gauges. I also dont have any type of tester to test which wires go hot and which ones dont

[PHOENIX]

I cant believe you dont own a test light!

What are you doing Wednesday after work?
I can come over and help you out, get that sway bar, and give you the tranny cooler. Im no electrical expert but I may be able to help.

EDIT:
Have you tried following the printed circuit board to find which wires do what? That helped me some when I changed my gauges.

[Tom]

Wensday sounds good eddie. Ill take all the help I can get
Im installing the new flexplate tonight hopfully, so I might even be able to take you for a spin on wensday [MAYBE]

[swervin ervin]

This just goes to show, you never visit my site.

I have what each color wire is for in my gauge installation article.

The ignition wires in the gauge harness are a pink wire with a black stripe. There are 3 of them in the stock harness.

[PHOENIX]

I visited your Joke section not too long ago and there are some funny jokes in there!

Mike were the wires the same throughout the years? Mine werent like the book I had when I did mine. A few were off. But who knows whos be playing with my electrical before I got the truck.

[swervin ervin]

Eddie,

I'm not sure if they all stayed the same or not, or if they didn't, what year they changed. But from what I've seen others say, they are close. I'm pretty sure the gray wire is the same, at least if is in the 80's trucks.

[Tom]

I am so confused now. STupid manuals do not help. The manual says there should be a dark green wire going from the light switch up to a fuse box, then turning into a grey wire to the intruments. I have the dark green wire, but no fuse block and no grey wire. I think Im going to cut and test the green wire tonight. Hope I dont mess anything up!

Mike,
Ill addmit I dont visit you site all the time. When was the last time you went to mine?

[swervin ervin]

Ok, I guess we're even.

And as far as being confused, don't feel bad, I get confused anytime it comes to this damn wiring crap. I hate messing with this junk. I rather pull the tranny or something mechanical any day.