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Thread: Wiring ?

  1. #1
    Taylorman
    So last night im hooking up my new GPS speedometer. Im laying under the dash trying to solder wires together. What a pain in the a** that is. I realized that the wiring under my dash looks like a rat nest. All wires are soldered and all connection are good but it looks like crap. I had to solder 5 grounds together to add my new gauge.
    So my question is how do you guys have all your grounds connected under the dash for all the gauges. I have 5 gauges, a rpm window switch, lights and a couple of other things under the dash. I was thinking about trying to clean up the wiring a little. How do you guys have everything wired up under there.

  2. #2
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2010
    Posts
    2,920
    Can't post any pictures because my rewire will be a winter project. I've been giving it some thought though. Just like you I feel a need to re-engineer things to clean it up some.
    I think I'm going to use a terminal strip (like the one on the back of most people's motors) to jumper power and grounds off. Just run power to the first position on the strip and jumper to the next three or four spots (same with the grounds). That way you don't end up with a bunch of leads soldered together in a splice pit. You'd have 3 or 4 nice spots to pick up your power and grounds from.
    I think if you take your time, it will turn out to be a nice clean installation.
    Currently all my wires are run point to point. I have no terminal strip anywhere. Although it's always functioned, I have to wonder about the integrity of the wires/connectors. I've redone most of the connections at one time or another, but some of the leads are getting pretty short in length, and I hate splices.............
    Being in the electronics game for 16 years, I've seen lots of problems attributable to bad splices.

  3. #3
    Havasu Hangin'
    Just like a fuseblock for power wires, they sell a (non-fused) distribution block for grounds (no splicing needed).
    Save yourself some headaches down the road- upgrade to 8 gauge power and ground wire from the engine/batteries to the new distibution/fuse blocks under the dash, then run you other 12 guage wires to you switches, guages, etc.

  4. #4
    Devilman
    That's the easiest & cleanest way... Friend of mine gave me one of those ground blocks. Screwed it up under the dash and ran a heavy gauge wire to ground it to the engine block. Now, I've got 8 or 10 places to ground things where it'll be a nice, solid ground. The wiring under there is atrocious, just haven't made it that far into getting rid of the rat nest. The fuel pump was grounded to the back of one of the gauges being one example. The fuel pump kept shutting down, that's what prompted me to get the ground block.... Took all of about 20 minutes to complete the job...

  5. #5
    Jetmugg
    As far as my guages, I just daisy-chained all of the grounds and 12V supply wires. This makes it a bit cleaner under the dash, but still not as nice as cleanly routed wires going to a distribution block.
    SteveM.

  6. #6
    AZKC
    Just like a fuseblock for power wires, they sell a (non-fused) distribution block for grounds (no splicing needed).
    Save yourself some headaches down the road- upgrade to 8 gauge power and ground wire from the engine/batteries to the new distibution/fuse blocks under the dash, then run you other 12 guage wires to you switches, guages, etc.
    Ding!!!!

  7. #7
    BrendellaJet
    Is there any harm in using 14 gauge wire instead of 12?

  8. #8
    Taylorman
    This looks like a pretty nice dist. block.
    https://shogunindustries.com/Web_sto...s/groundit.jpg

  9. #9
    Captain no fun
    Hey, scotchcote a 3m product in an orange can, is a snot like brushable sealer for marine use. Use it to keep out corrosion!

  10. #10
    Tom Brown
    Like HH, I use fuse blocks to distribute power but I use two of them. One 6 gang fuse block distributes keyed power and one 6 gang fuse block distributes battery power.
    A distribution block handles the grounds nicely.
    Break out the P-Touch and label it up with black on clear labels.
    Oh yes... I used a small piece of 3/8" plastic board (like Kingboard) to mount everything on so it's nice and tidy.
    .... so I guess this is a 'me too' post.

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