how the hell?

Chances are black will be ground (if it has any wiring), but you are looking at 1 ground, one live to an ignition circuit (those EL gauges normally need permanent illumination rather than just lights on) for and one from the alternator to measure volts (and maybe a ground for the volt circuit), one to connect to a pressure sender for oil pressure, and possibly one to dim the gauges when the lights are on.

You're right. Having everything working as it should is nice.

Those two need connecting to the oil-pressure-sender that you need to install in your engine bay :)

Again, two more pins either to ignition feed if you want them permanently lit, or sidelight feed if you want them on with your lights. Which leaves two more pins - so either the guage-pod itself needs power (one ignition, on ground), or they have some other function.

You need to pull it to bits, and see what pins go where on the inside !

no loom though :( trial and error is another thing i'd rather not do :(

but which ones :)

true

I can't afford to pull it apart!!!! I could hardly afford to buy it either :(

in news:cvtcas$o85$ snipped-for-privacy@news8.svr.pol.co.uk, " dojj" slurred :

The voltmeter pins should be fairly straightforward to find with a multimeter; Set it to the lowest resistance scale, then try all combinations of the pins, whilst looking at the needle, until you see it move (the movement will probably only be slight, so you'll need to look carefully whilst making & breaking contact). once you've found the correct pair, connect to the battery...

The oil-pressure pins can probably be found in the same way, but you'd need to find out more about the oil-pressure sender to be able to use it.

Finally the electroluminescent bit... Hmmm. These need AC to work (typically 40-180Volts AC)- some have an inverter built in, so you give them DC and they produce the AC for you. It's possible the inverter was external to the unit, but I doubt it. If it does have the inverter built in, then you should be able to find it by connecting battery supply to all the combinations of pins, but put a

500 ohm - 1k ohm or similar resistor in series to limit the current and prevent damage. You need to try all combinations in both polarities. Hopefully the inverter will do something visible, or it might make a slight whistling noise. I'd disconeect the other pins before finding the EL illumination connectors.

Lots of testing :-)

None of the RS clubs got wiring diagrams?

Have you tried searching your choice of peer2peer for a Ford/Cosworth workshop manual CD?

OK, on the emule/donkey network there "ford_technical_information_services(workshop_manuals_and_howtos).iso"

there is supposed to be 18 sources for it.

Might have what you want. Maybe even a wiring diagram of the loom.

got myself a set of loom diagrams from a mate and the wires are in the wrong places so i got to test which is which in order to figure out which way the plug goes into the back

6 pins, in a line, top to bottom being a testy sort of guy by nature i have solved the riddle of the lights and the volt meter now which leaves me with 4 pins to go more news when i figure it out :)

Good man.

BTW, I DLed that Ford TIS DVD.

It's not bad. Service/Workshop manual. Electrical diagrams. TSB's upto 2003 Access to the Oasis system (needs a ford dealer code and network details unfortunatley).

900 meg in an ISO.

I'm goign to add it to my other EPC, Manuals and ETKAs I've collected. Somepeople like a stack of books for all cars they've ever owned. I like a nice compact pile of CD/DVD roms.

I think I've got one floating about somewhere but if it's not on paper it's a bit hard for me to decipher not too computeroperatablelelele me :)