Wiring Aftermarket Gauges in a Falcon

[braiden]

A few things to say before we get into the guts of it all:

In terms of cable to use for this, figure 8 will be fine for all the gauges listed here.

Crimps are a good idea when needed, but only good ones. Crappy crimps never work, and they're more trouble than they're worth. So make sure you get some good quality crimps and a good crimping tool.

A soldering iron, solder, and some electrical tape is essential. If you're going to do a job, do it right okay?

Sidecutters and wire strippers are also needed. I use my Leatherman for all my stripping and cutting needs, but whatever gets you stiff.

Heatshrink makes things look neat and attractive. Very good idea in the engine bay, or anywhere where the cable is visible.

Disconnect the negative terminal of the battery. Shorts are bad. Especially when your leatherman almost gets welded to the chassis. Bad experience. Play it safe. All this stuff is expensive so it's worth the extra 2 minutes work.

After that, it's all good!

It seems the most common gauge, whether necessary or not (please don't flame about whether tacho's are stupid or not - the fact is, if someone wants one, that's their business) is:


Tachometer

What it does: A tacho measures the speed that the ignition system is sparking at. Faster sparking = faster engine speed. It does this by connecting its signal wire (usually green) to the negative terminal on the low tension (thinner wire) side.

Wiring it up: There are 4 wires on most tachos. Positive (red), negative (black), illumination (white), and signal (green). Power can come from any ignition or accessories power source. In my case, I wired the power for all my gauges to the cigarette lighter. So, the gauges are on with accessories, but this is especially good if you have an aftermarket Voltmeter, so you can still monitor the battery voltage on accessories.

The white wire is for the backlight, if your tacho has one which 99% should. Wire this to any positive line for cluster illumination, or to the headlight switch.

The signal wire needs to go to Pin 8 of the larger connector on the back of the cluster. The wire is pink with a blue stripe. Splice into the wire, and bob's your father's brother.


Electric Oil Pressure

What it does: Measures oil pressure using a device called an oil pressure sender, which is screwed into the side of the engine block which creates a voltage according to the pressure, and is read by the gauge.

Wiring it up: Falcon's without oil pressure gauges in the stock cluster have a light which comes on once the oil pressure drops below a certain point. This is made possible by a oil pressure switch, not a sender. To install your oil pressure gauge, you need to do one of two things:

1. Remove the switch and replace it with a sender
2. Fit a T-piece and have both the sender and the switch

The switch is located on the side of the engine block. In EA-ED, this is under the intake manifold, between the coil and the dizzy. Not sure for other models, but the concept is the same. If you have a Gregory's or something of the like, that should point you in the right direction. It's a bit of a game of Twister to get to it, but it's possible.

Once the sender is in, it's back into the car to wire the gauge!

Again, power can come from the same place, as well as illumination. The signal wire is the same idea as the tacho. Just connect the wire from the oil pressure sensor (which you have routed through the firewall or a grommet somewhere of course) to the signal terminal on the oil pressure gauge, and you're done!


Voltmeter

What it does: Simply displays how many volts the battery is outputting, and therefore telling you the charge of the battery and also the load that it is being exposed to. Probably the best and most useful gauge I have in my opinion.

Wiring it up: This one is easy as. Wire up your power and illumination same as any other gauge, and you're done! Some people will argue that when the gauge is wired to the cigarette lighter for example, that it is not as accurate as direct from the battery, but unless you're hardcore about this one, the cigarette lighter is fine. You can wire directly to the battery, but make sure either the positive or the earth is switch by the key, or you will run your battery flat.


Air / Fuel Ratio

What it does: Displays a reading using the oxygen sensor which shows what sort of air / fuel mixture the car has.

Wiring it up: Relatively simple. Wire up power and illumination as per normal, and splice into the oxygen sensor in the exhaust between the headers and the cat OR at the ECU. Done!


These gauges listed are the most likely gauges you guys would be likely to fit, with the exception of a boost gauge. Unfortunantly, I am not sure how to install such a gauge at this time, but I welcome anyone who knows how to install gauges other than the ones listed here to post a reply to this thread showing how to do it.

[BRADMAN]

Boost

What it does: Display Vacuum & Possitive Pressure (boost) within manifold.

Wiring it up: Wire up your illumination same as any other gauge, run a vacuum line from the gauge to a T-Piece on the fuel regulator vacuum line (the little round thing at then end of the injector rail) or any other vacuum source really.


Shift Light

What it does: Simply displays a bright light when the desired RPM is achieved telling you maybe you should change gear.

Wiring it up: Wire up your power same as any other gauge, connect the signal wire to the same pin that a tacho meter goes to behind your factory cluster

[wicksy]

sweet as thank you very muchly, time to save up and get myself some guages

[BLCKED]

oil temp for my auto.

i tapped into the lines running to the trans cooler and fitted a t pice with a temp sender and it works fine, closer to the box the better apparently.

[campbells_xr6]

this helped alot thanks boys campbell

[onICEef95]

with the tacho, im abit stumped with the 'The signal wire needs to go to Pin 8 of the larger connector on the back of the cluster...' im abit of a noob lol. what larger connector on the back of what cluster?

[FOR.0EL]

Air / Fuel Ratio

Wiring it up: Relatively simple. Wire up power and illumination as per normal, and splice into the oxygen sensor in the exhaust between the headers and the cat OR at the ECU. Done!

which wire gets spliced ? i have 3 coming from my sensor, 2 white and a black one.
im guessing 1 is the signal and 2 are the heater wires.

perhaps the black wire?

a definate answer would be super though

[e series falcon]

nathan u wire it to the ecu a/f gauge send paul a pm he has the thing to tel u what pin doesnt go to the co2

[meteora_man]

On my instructions for my boost gauge it has 3 wires. Ignition, Ground and Dash Lighting. Could i hook the ignition to the cigarette lighter and dash lighting to the head light switch?

[XF6250]

good thread i like it but 1 question if my car has the factory oil gauge in the cluster then will it have a switch or a sender?

[Dimixr]

XF6250
if u have the oil pressure guage u have to have a sender

[XF6250]

thanks mate

[travs ea-xr6]

depends if your guage is a machanical one or electric

[lpg-092]

dunno if its of any use but the pin in an EF/EL computer you want for the A/F gauge is PIN N# 29 & is SOLID GREEN

quick question i've ran my boost gauge from where my map sensor reads will it work ? or shoul d i change it to where the fuel reg gets its vac from ?

[InsaneFurball]

Hey guys.

Im new here (obviously) and im having trouble wiring my ED s-pak cluster into my EA.

Apparently there's supposed to be a pink/blue wire in the loom in pin 8? Well, i don't have any pink wires in my cluster loom/big black plug. So i have no idea where or what to run my coil wire to for the tacho.

The closest i seem to have is a red wire with blue'ish dots (not a solid line).

There's a fair few missing wires from my plug, is the tacho wire one of them?

[krisisdog]

http://www.fordmods.com/documents.php?d=45

read this bud, should have the info you are after

[InsaneFurball]

Thanks for that mate, i literally just finished reading that and it seems the wire im chasing isn't even in my loom at all. So it's basically a vacant hole.

Next question is, where am i going to get a tiny female connector that'll fit my plug so i can run the wire? Not sure if the wreckers will let me slice up one of theirs.

[InsaneFurball]

Ok, got the wiring issue sorted, no worries.

Now, it seems to be a bloody treasure hunt to find the coil wire. I looked for like 10 mins (expecting to find a cylinder type coil) but apparently it's a box type thats under the inlet manifold on the side of the block? If thats the case, its almost impossible to get at and is covered in oily crap and build up. Is there somewhere else in the loom that i might be able to connect the wire to? The Computer behind the passenger side kick panel maybe?

Apparently there's a diagnostic plug near the brake booster that has the wire im looking for, but i cant find that either!

[lpg-092]

ey mate what do you need the coil wire for ? smart lock ? its easier to get to the coil probably by jacking the car up and getting under just behind the L/H/F wheel and looking up that side of the block, it should be directly above your head.

Coils seem to die with out warning in the earlier e-series i'd probably just change it while your there if its full of oil and crap

ash

[InsaneFurball]

I need to run the tacho wire to it, seeing my loom doesnt seem to have the pink/blue wire. Well it doesn't exist in my cluster loom anyway, whether it's somewhere else, i have no idea.

Is there another place i can run it to that you know of?

[089JAY]

Noticed noone has cover Water Temp Gauges, where is everyone tapping thier sensors into?

[krisisdog]

Off the thermostat housing.

[089JAY]

Looked like it would be the easiest place. Thanks krisis

[089JAY]

In the bottom of the Thermostat Housing, is it already a Temp Sensor or do I have to drill the housing and tap the whole for the aftermarket Sensor??

[krisisdog]

You buy a T piece adaptor, no drilling.

[089JAY]

Electric Gauge

[josh_ef]

i think it should just work of the fatory spot then?

[krisisdog]

Yes electric gauge will have a sensor, so you put the sensor in the T piece, same as any other leccy gauge. It then sends the signal to the gauge...

Depending on the thread you could remove the factory sensor, but then the one in the cluster wouldnt work. I've added an oil pressure gauge to my EF even though it has a oil pressure gauge in the cluster. The stock one does not give a reading of pressure, the aftermarket gives a psi reading which is what I was after. T piece into block (same as when running an oil line feed to a turbo) and screw both sensors in.
Same as a water temp gauge.

[089JAY]

Well after getting the run around this morning at Supershit, Repco, Enzed, and a few other places Autobarn actually helped me with an adapter that goes into the Top Radiator house that the sensor screws into. So I will do a write up with pics etc tomorrow or friday.

[DEVLXR]

Sorry for thread mining here but seems pointless making a new thread here. What do people do when they need 3 oil sources, ie: oil pressure gauge, oil temp gauge and oil feed line? If 2 T pieces attached the best option here?

[raa4.0L]

Get a block that goes under your oil filter.
They have 2 large holes for either an oil cooler or oil feed and return plus 2 small holes for senders.

Sent from my GT-N7105T using Tapatalk 2

[xgxr6]

I used a distribution block that i got from enzed. Its just an alloy block that had 1 thread at each end and 3 down the side.