Guage terminal?

[Jacob]

I have the GPS classic gauges and while prepping to wire them up I see the gauge terminal (male end) but the dash harness that it would mate to doesn't have female ends that would connect up, so I am wondering if I should have the correct female connectors? I've asked FFR via email so they may be able to answer but just wondering? The gauges and harness are too nice of a setup to expect one to butcher all this wiring in order to make connections?

See attached pic, the leads on the left are from a typical gauge terminal and the connectors on the right came with my wiring.

image.png

[edwardb]

Ditch that bundle of blue insulated spade connector wires. You won't use them with your Speedhut gauges. In your Speedhut box you should have single wires that connect all the lighting and power circuits together. They're cables with mating connectors every few inches that plug into the appropriate wires on the Speedhut gauges. You tie them all together, and just make single connections to the RF harness for backlighting, needle lighting, and gauge power and ground. Hope that makes sense and helps.

[Jacob]

thanks edwardb...I must have overlooked these in the box...will take another look tomorrow...the bundle of blue spade connectors look like they belong somewhere else!

[awd-turbo]

Good information. I started to read both the Ron Francis install book last night, and the one that came with the GPS gauges. I am horrible with wiring. And I have been putting this off because of it.

[Jacob]

Who would have ever thought to look in the gauge box? Yep, the end terminals are there...not feeling real smart!

[awd-turbo]

This is why I hate electrical. I am looking at this, but to me it seems like we dont use a lot of the main harness??? Is this correct?

[Jacob]

This is why I hate electrical. I am looking at this, but to me it seems like we dont use a lot of the main harness??? Is this correct?

I can't answer but it seems others have ended with a box of deleted / not used wires...it does seem the wiring is a bear but like eating an elephant, one bite at a time!

[phileas_fogg]

This is why I hate electrical. I am looking at this, but to me it seems like we dont use a lot of the main harness??? Is this correct?

Yes and no. I'm going to use pretty much every circuit in the Ron Francis harness, but I've repurposed at least four circuits, and may end up repurposing more. Also, if you're looking in the Ron Francis book for instructions on wiring the hazard switch, there aren't any (but Kleiner took care of that for us; see my PS).

I find the key to wiring is breaking the job into teeny tiny tasks. Don't try to be efficient; be effective.


John

P.S. Gathered together below for your reading pleasure, here is Jeff Kleiner’s excellent tutorial on gauges (Post #10 of http://www.ffcars.com/forums/17-fact...-question.html). Follow these extraordinarily helpful instructions to the letter.

“The Speedhut/FFR Classic gauges use 2 wire senders while the RF harness is set up for one wire so I recommend doing kind of a hybrid. You'll need to power up all of the gauges on their red wire by connecting them to the brown "gauge feed" wire in the harness. Also connect the black "ground" wire in the dash harness to each of the gauges' black wires. You will carry the tachometer signal from the coil on the purple "coil-tach" wire that runs all the way through in the sending units subharness. The speedo signal comes through the green and gray wires which will join the yellow/red and yellow/black wires on the gauge. Polarity is not important as it is only counting pulses. For the coolant temperature and oil pressure gauges run the long pigtail with the yellow/red and yellow/black wires to their respective senders. Once again polarity is not an issue because these are reading resistance. The voltmeter has no sender, the gauge power and ground give it all it needs. Fuel gauge connects to the light green "gas sender" wire. I recommend powering the clock from the red "radio memory" wire. That will get everything working!

“Next move on to gauge lighting. The white wire from all of the gauges connects to the RF harness white "dash lights" wire. If you have the seperate dimmer module the white harness "dash lights" wire connects to the input of the dimmer; the dimmer's black ground connects to the black harness ground. From there the dimmers output snaps into the connectors for the lighter gauge wire. It seems redundant but is this way because the needles are lighted independently from the gauge face and are not dimmed. If you do not have the dimmer module then the small white wire at the end of the snap together chain also connects to the harness "dash lights" wire. By the way, before you drive yourself crazy thinking something is wrong the hands on the clock are not lighted.”

This is what Jeff has to say about switches (Post #18 of http://www.ffcars.com/forums/17-fact...sh-layout.html )

“ON/OFF/ON is turn signal--- Land the gray "turn flasher feed" wire to the center terminal Join the yellow ""left rear turn" and the green "left front turn" wires together along with 3 extra pigtails (we'll get to what to do with them in a minute). Join the light blue "right front turn" and the white "right rear turn" wires together and include 3 pigtails with them as well. One pigtail from the yellow and green set goes to one of the outer terminals of the switch, another will go to the left turn dash indicator and the third one will go to the hazard flasher switch (again, we'll get there in a minute). Do the same with the blue and white wire set---one of the pigtails goes to the other terminal of the switch, one goes to the right turn dash indicator and the third will go to the hazard switch. After this you're done with the turn signal switch. To make the dash indicators work you'll connect the respective pigtail to one terminal of the lamp and connect the other terminal to ground.

“ON/OFF switches are used for accessories like the heater blower or cooling fan---power goes to the center terminal and the feed for the accessory goes to the other.

“ON/ON switch is for High/Low beam toggle. Since you're using a foot switch it doesn't apply.

“ON/OFF/ON [NOTE: In my case, it’s an ON/[no]/ON] DPDT] gets a little screwy... This is a DPDT (double pole double throw) switch that gets used for the flashers. It really should be a DPST (double pole single throw) ON/OFF switch. They have been providing this same switch for years and the only reason I can come up with is because a DPST is not available in this style but it will work. Take the pink "hazard flasher" feed wire and connect it to BOTH center terminals of the switch. Connect the pigtail from your yellow/green pair to one of the outside terminals. Connect the pigtail from your blue/white pair to the other terminal on the SAME end of the switch. This leaves the two terminals on the other end of the switch unused. The switch will have 2 OFF positions (because there is nothing connected to the other set of terminals) and 1 ON position. If you wanted it to have 2 ON positions you could run a jumper from the terminal with the green/yellow to the open terminal on the same side of the other end and do likewise with the blue/white. In that case the center switch position would be off and flipping the switch either direction would turn on the hazard flashers.
Looking at the back of the switch it will be like this:

OPEN--------OPEN
PINK---------PINK
Y & G--------B & W

OR

Y & G--------B & W
PINK---------PINK
Y & G--------B & W

Told you it was screwy but trust me, it will work.”

[boBQuincy]

After working in an electrical team for 24+ years I found that almost *everyone else* hates electrical.

This is why I hate electrical. I am looking at this, but to me it seems like we dont use a lot of the main harness??? Is this correct?