Good intrument panel wiring techniques.

Mar 02, 2005 1 Replies

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Hi all,

I've recently been adding or replacing my stock CJ7 guages with Autometer guages. One of these gauges is mechanical (oil pressure), and the others are electrical (water temp, fuel). On all the gauges there is wiring for lighting the gauge at night, the electrical gauges also have wiring so they can work.

My question is how to wire all this stuff properly? I already have wires coming out of my fuse box for my radio and my CB radio so the whole thing looks like a mess. How can I organized the wiring so that it's wired correctly and also organized.

I was thinking of creating a panel to mount under the dash and over the hump with thumb bolts to tighten them down with. Since all these things drawing power are in the middle of the dash it sounds like a good idea. But then I would need sources that were off when the jeep is off and sources that are on when the jeep is off.

Anyway, I'm up for suggestions.

Bill

I like the plastic ribbed split tubing to organize wires. I also like those plastic zip ties If done right, you just notch the tube where the various gauge's wires come out. Next time I have my CJ's dash off, I am going to do it that way, Right now it is just your stock basic rats nest.

You 'can' do a fancy wrap like a duct tape style one and black wide wrap tape can be found also.

Either way, you will likely need to extend some wires. Solder and heat shrink is the way to go. The new automotive double walled heat shrink has glue inside so it turns waterproof or you can use dielectric grease inside electronic heat shrink. To find the gauge, the CJ7 Haynes manual has all the correct specs or use a stripper and see what hole strips clean, that will be the right size.

I ran a 2 or 4 ga. wire from my battery negative to a screw power buss just like a home fuse/breaker panel uses that holds multiple wire taps and set it just above my fuse panel under the hood. I tagged everything to that because I have a 'glass body. The power could be done that way too for the extra stuff if you fused everything. My battery has extra posts and a post off the clamp so I ran my extra power lines direct to the battery.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

William Oliveri wrote:

Good intrument panel wiring techniques.

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