I am getting ready to wire my car (50 Chevy) I am running the stock instrument cluster but the only thing in it I'm going to use is the speedo. I have seperate guages under the dash. So, I have all these different hot and ground wires to hook up all the different guages and lights along with the ground wires for them also. Can I use a bus bar like this and hook up the hot wires on one side and the grounds on the other? http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|328|49758|112306|299259&id=51737 It makes sense to me and would make things a little neater under the dash. I would obviuosly hook a coomon hot from the panel to one side and a body/chassis ground to the other. Please keep in mind that I know nothing about wiring and I want to do the correctly. Thanks, Todd
God I hope not. This is confusing enough without opposite opinions on the same topic. It make sense to me but I know jack shit about wiring and don't want to fry anything.
Look into some wiring kits I have used Ron Francis comes with fuse box & enough color coded wire to go from head lights to tail lights There are many CO.s that make them to match what ever your building
Well....it's one way to do it....not how I would do it, but it would probably work, and if it makes it easier for you to understand (and increases the odds of you making it work) then it could be a good way to go. I'm leery of having an exposed metal part with 12v on it under the dash, where it could accidently get shorted to ground (I have experience that this will probably happen) Also do you really need two hot busses? one for dash lights and one for ignition power? or do you plan to just run the gage lights off of ignition power? also what kind of gages are you using that you'll need more than a couple hot wires? Hopefully not an electric oil pressure gage (especially one of those chinese ones)
Barrier terminal strips are not busses....they can be bridged, but it's not really the same thing. The terminals are connected in pairs, not along each side.
Squirrel, I'm running Autometer Tradional Chrome guages. My intention was to run my hot wire from the light switch to the buss barr and use the buss bar to power up my quage lights along with the backlight to the original instrument cluster. I was going to use the ground side of the bus bar for the grounding of the guagelights and my guages. Yes I am using a electric oil pressure guage, Autometer. Todd
Personally, I would not use something like that, the terminal screws are bare, and you never want a +12 terminal open, never know what can happen and short them out. Personally, I'd just solder the connections to one common wire for the + and the - and use heat shrink and/or electrical tape to protect it. Then you could either solder the wires into the correct locations, or use a some sort of a 2 terminal male/female connector if you want to make it removable. I just don't like open 12V terminals in a car, with the vibrations you never know what could happen. (I don't even use them for stereo equipment, even if thats how it came, everything is protected).
I'm with squirrel. Your idea will work but to me you have added a bunch of wires running to the buss along with additional uninsulated potential shorts. I've always just run one hot wire to the closest gauge and then make jumpers from gauge to gauge to gauge. The same thing for the grounds and the lamp circuit. I think it's cleaner that way. JMHO lamp circuit for under the dash gauges.
That makes good sense. they do make protective covers for these bus bars but the jumper method might be even easier. Glad I asked. VIVA LA HAMB!!! Todd
Thats the way to do it...SANO all running illumination is usually off 1 fuse. your running lights go out and the dash lights go out. instrumentation runs from it's own fuse accessory lights like dome and underhood have their own fuse heater on it's own stop and turn signal is on it's own because the turn signal/emergency flasher system bridges the turn signals and brake lights through the turn signal switch radio on it's own ignition and all engine power off the switch the less you have unfused and unswitched the better You can run all your direct wired power(except for the starter) through a commercial solenoid designed for any semi truck. they have ALL power through a solenoid that powers everything off from the ignition switch and relays for the headlights and other high amp circuits. research the wiring scematic for your components and design your own harness. it should have mounting points for components and a fuse block and look like a single root-like structure when it's done
And you don't need big wire either. I used some #12 wire on my dash, and after I was done, there was just too much wire back there and it looked like a mess. I had to do it over, and I think it is #16 wire if my memory is any good. I space my splices out. Don't try to twist four or five wires to the same point. Go a couple inches to the next Y (rosin-core solder and heat-shrink).
You always want to match your current pull to the gauge of the wire as well as remembering that for long runs of wire you may need a larger (smaller number) gauge. here's a very good site: http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm
That particular unit is used on a boat for a couple or reasons. 1. on a boat all ground circuits have to go back to the battery to prevent electrolysis plus many boats are made of non conducting materal anyhow. On my sailboat I use the bussbar to feed the circuit breakers for the individual circuits. I also have a separate bussbar for the ground circuits. the unit you showed would probably be used where there was limited space to put two units and would simplify wiring somewhat. It might also be used where you had several lights on one breaker and the bar feeding off the breaker for interior or running lights = one of those bars for each breaker that feeds several circuits. The next time you are in Borders or one of the other bookstores check the boat stuff shelf and see if there is a copy of one of the 12 V marine electrical books there. It will explain what I was trying to say complete with photos/drawings. Normally in a steel bodied car the sheet metal serves as the ground return with a ground strap from the battery to the body to complete the circuit.
Gauges don't draw much power at all, and since we're talking about pretty short runs, 16AWG will be more than sufficent. Those bus bars are actually REALLY handy on the ground side (again, for car audio, I've made them, we have BIGASS bus bars at work, I'll cut a couple inches off and drill and tap the holes and mount it straight to the floor pan). Just a little to nerve racking to use it on the 12V side. My EZ harness used all 16AWG for all the gauges. Everything in the kit was at least the appropriate size, if not larger.
For what it's woth I already have a harness. I'm going to use a Rebel 9+3. I'm not quite ready for the wiring yet but I'm trying to get these questions that I have in my head figured out before I start the actual wiring. Todd
You're good to go then, the aftermarket harnesses have wires for the senders, and a single gauge power, gauge lights and ground wire (at least mine did, but I bought it before I joined the site and knew about the Rebels). I just sat with my gauge panel at the kitchen table, wired all the lights, grounds, and 12+ together there, that way when I went to put it in the car, I just had two wires to connect (and like I said, if you want it to be REAL easy, get a 3-pronged automotive plug and that way you can just plug it in, and unplug it if you ever need to. Actually, if you were to get a 8 pronged plug, you could even include the sender wires into the mix and make it REAL foolproof! You're doin' right to plan. It makes it 1000x easier. The parts of mine I didn't have mapped out before I dove in was a pain in the ass. Can't overdo the planning, I sat with a schematic of the car, the list of wire colors in the harness, and made a list of what wire in the harness would go to which wire (including color off the schematic) in the car. SUPER easy, that way you don't have to be thinkin' this shit up on the fly.
never never NEVER Never never never reach up under the dash with bare hands in a panic to jerk out smoking wires
If you run something like this, I would suggest making a few spacers from a non-conductive tube and place a non-conductive cover over the bus held down by the screws to prevent accidental contact. This is what a lot of the high voltage equipment I work on has. Very simple, cheap, and functional. Hope my poor drawing helps!
Nice one, make sure you take lots of step-by-step photos and post a thread on here, coz I'm going to be doing exactly the same with my sons 52(although the wiring date keeps getting further away) and we've got a 9+3 as well. Cheers.
I did! I burnt the shit out of my hand but the truck did not burn down. My hand healed up nicely. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do to save your ride. I don't have to worry about it happening again...I install a fuseable link in the alternator wire ever since that happened. I made a choice...a burnt hand or my ride burning to the ground. I did the right thing.
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