Im rewiring my 56 ford victorias dash and i have one power wire thats gotta go to 5 gauges.Its the instrument panel light wire and its gotta go to all 5 gauges.what kind of connector can i use ?1 wire in and 5 wires out.Rebel wire is cosed on sunday.Thanks
Hey Mikhett, Best bet would be to use a terminal block. Then attach all gauge wires and power to one spot. Jeff
Run power wire to one gauge, cut and strip a piece of same color wire long enough to reach next gauge, crimp both wires in the first connector, and so on down the line of gauges. Sometimes you can even use a slightly larger, same color wire to reach the first connection point. I would suggest insulated connectors for power wires. Safety third. Hope that helps.
That's a great idea but its a little like the old Christmas tree lights one goes out they all go. I used a terminal block on mine, to each their own.
One of the gauges, or one of the wires? If a gauge fails, unless it fails shorted, it won't bring the rest with. If a wire fails, you have larger problems. Also, christmas lightsare wired in series, this is parallel.
When I did my gauges I put three wires together with solder and heat shrink. One in and two out. This made a cleaner setup that put one wire to each of two gauges, plus a third to the next gauge. Once I had all the gauges daisy chained this way I took the last end to the common feed. This is the cluster I built up to go into my '63 Falcon:
Someone hasn't watched Rocket City Rednecks. http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/rocket-city-rednecks/?gclid=CJSfkd7C_70CFeY-Mgodh1gACA
Here ya go, I also grouped the wires for each gauge and function, ( turn, hi beam, etc. that way you can unplug the gauges to work on them if ever needed. You can see the ground wire (green) daisy chained, as are the lights power wire. All the methods posted here are right, it's a matter of which way you want to do it.
daisy chain looks cleaner, but might give less voltage to last gauge than to first one; a terminal block will give more even voltage. One place i read recommended a completely separate line to volt meter.
BTTT Do you guys wire your aftermarket gauge power wires in series (i.e. daisy chain), or in parallel ( 1 wire in, 4 wires out)? What about gauge grounds? Thanks!
I am not trying to be an ass but..... You need to look up the difference between series and parallel circuits. From this statement it appears you don't understand the difference.
Depends a little on how the gauges are set up. On the gauges in your picture; I would daisy chain the ignition power from gauge to gauge and build a harness for the light wires. Power wire and left gauge light wire into a butt connector power wire and second from left gauge light wire out of the butt connector, power wire from first connector into a butt connector and power wire and speedo light wire out of the connector, then power wire from second butt connector and second from the right gauge light wire into a butt connector and right gauge light wire out of the butt connector. Gotta be sure to slide the shrink tube sleeves on before crimping. Both daisy chain and small harness used in the pictures attached.
My harness had a gauge power and separate gauge power circuit. I used some T&B barrier strips (terminal blocks) and made the terminals common with jumpers that came with them. I wish I took a picture, I made up a bracket and mounted them back-to-back on a dash support. Then ran the gauge power and lights accordingly. From the instrument cluster, I made the wiring as common as possible.
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