Gauge cluster wiring Aftermarket gauges lights

[ChevyRacefan]

Each gauge has it's own light, and a -&+ for the light.
Looking for ways to wire them together. Not a fan of the strip bus bars that don't cover the connections, like this


Any better ideas.

[Andy4639]

You have how many lights? I would google connectors. You could make your own connector and have as many connections as needed. What kind of bulb connection do you have now? Just tie them all together. Many ways to do this but you need to figure out the layout and how long you need the pigtails for them.

[ChevyRacefan]

Originally Posted by Andy4639

You have how many lights? I would google connectors. You could make your own connector and have as many connections as needed. What kind of bulb connection do you have now? Just tie them all together. Many ways to do this but you need to figure out the layout and how long you need the pigtails for them.

7 Gauges in the factory lay out. Each with it's own light.
Think I might try 1 wire and cut 1/2" of the insulation off the wire near gauge, join the gauge light pig tail wire to the other wire solder and shrink tube it.
It be nice if Autometer had 2 wires coming out of both the +&- of the lamp socket, so you could daisy chain them. or be able to re-pin/wire the sockets.

[Andy4639]

What does the gauges pigtails look like? Pictures would help a lot to try and find a solution.

I have the speed hut gauges in my truck and it came with a wiring harness.

https://www.speedhut.com/ecommerce/p...es-with-Dimmer

https://www.speedhut.com/ecommerce/p...ribution-Cable

Buy this and the female to match it and have them all in one connector. You would then have to make a connection with all the grounds and all the positives into 2 wires.

[VetteVet]

Originally Posted by ChevyRacefan

7 Gauges in the factory lay out. Each with it's own light.
Think I might try 1 wire and cut 1/2" of the insulation off the wire near gauge, join the gauge light pig tail wire to the other wire solder and shrink tube it.
It be nice if Autometer had 2 wires coming out of both the +&- of the lamp socket, so you could daisy chain them. or be able to re-pin/wire the sockets.

Your post is pretty vague but here is a picture like Andy was talking about with
all the wires in one plug. You would have to match the harness to gauge plug with it.

[ChevyRacefan]

Originally Posted by VetteVet

Your post is pretty vague but here is a picture like Andy was talking about with
all the wires in one plug. You would have to match the harness to gauge plug with it.

Attachment 2073663

Sorry about the vagueness. not sure how to explain things sometimes.
I have a "quick" disconnect plug set for the cluster, to be able to remove/service if need.
Lets see if I can explain myself/ thinking.
I want to connect ALL the gauge lights + together and then send that to the quick connector pin.
Same with the gauge lights - wire.
I tried adding to the pig tail and then connecting them all together At same splice and it was a bulky mess. So I scratched that idea.

[ChevyRacefan]

So I was thinking, snaking a wire to every pig tail, where the pig tail wire meets the snaked wire, cut the wire insulation 1/2" in length, and solder the pig tail wire to the snaked wire then heat shrink. do this for all the gauge + then snake another wire and do the same for the - side of the light sockets/pig tails.

[VetteVet]

By being vague I meant that you haven't told us what year your truck is and what type of cluster it had and if the aftermarket gauges replaced the stock gauges. Pictures would help a lot.

I'll post a couple that may help you with the wiring.

First off. You can wire all the lights together in parallel on the ground or - side but only the instrument lights on the + side can be wired together. There are four lights that get their + power from other sources. They are the two turn indicator lights the brake warning light and the temperature light, which isn't used if you have a temperature gauge. Oh and the High beam light.

I'm assuming you are only talking about the instrument lights in your gauges and you may have more than one per gauge. The stock gauges did not have lights in them. The lights were in separate sockets.

The printed circuits in the factory trucks did a good job of connecting all the lights and gauges. I'd have to ask how you plan on connecting the gauge wires up?

This diagram shows the stock printed circuit and how the lights are wired in parallel. for the ground and the positive feeds. The colors are not black or white but they are easy to follow if you look closely at the diagram.
The orange wires are the ground wires for all the lights and they connect all the light grounds together, and they can be grounded to the cluster or to the cluster plug where the black wire shows. The grey wires connect only the 4 instrument lights and they go to the dash plug at terminal 8 .




The number 7 pin is a ground for the left instrument light and the other three are grounded by screws to the dash cluster body.
I think your idea for the instrument lights will work and you could set up a junction for the hot wires and run all of them there and then just run one small wire from there to the pin in the plug. You could do the same with the ground wires and just ground them all to the cluster body but be sure it is grounded good to the cab.











This is a picture of the dash plug wiring to show all the wires to the cluster and where they go by pin numbers. You will have to match them to the new disconnect plug that you are wiring in.

[ChevyRacefan]

1971 with gauges, not idiot lights

[ChevyRacefan]

Each auto meter gauge has a light pigtail shown a few post up.
They will be wired to the oem gauge cluster lights +wire feed to turn on with headlights and dim if needed.
I am thinking if I take a wire and snake it around each gauge, and hook all the gauge light + to that wire, by cutting the snaked wire insulation at each gauge and removing 1/2" of it, connecting the gauge light + to the snaked wire, and solder and shrink tube over it, do this for all the gauge light +
Then do the same for all the gauge light - with another wire snaked around all the gauges.
This is just the lights for the gauges , not the sensor wires.

[Andy4639]

It would take some time but you could always buy some wire and spade connectors and make up your own harness that would allow you to take it loose when ever you needed to. Put the cluster together and install the pig tails and have all the gauges with male connections on both wires. Then make a daisy chain harness with the female connectors and correct length of wire for each gauge.

If your going to use the factory plug in to the cluster cut the dash light wire a few inches away from the connector and put a pigtail off it as well. Then if you ever go back to factory gauges you still have the connector in place.

The ground wires for the lights can all be ran together and grounded to the dash, just make a long enough wire to do this.

I'm going to order these just so I will have them.

https://www.amazon.com/LanHong-Water...B8YVM9XCS9YPVC

[Andy4639]

These may be even better.

https://www.amazon.com/Upgraded-Conn...ronics&sr=1-23