I want to wire my tachometer to a switch so I can turn it on/off at anytime. The switch I bought has a button on the top, and two metal pieces sticking out on the bottom. My only question is, what wires go on these metal pieces. The tach has 2 power wires, one red for power, and one white for dash light power. It also has a ground wire. I figured the ground would go on one side by itself. The other two would go on the other side along with a wire connected to a 12V power source. Is this a correct setup? -Plz help, thanks
Posted by Steve da Wrench (Member # 1301) on 08 February, 2002 04:07 PM:
quote:Originally posted by Matt-01-SS: I want to wire my tachometer to a switch so I can turn it on/off at anytime. The switch I bought has a button on the top, and two metal pieces sticking out on the bottom. My only question is, what wires go on these metal pieces. The tach has 2 power wires, one red for power, and one white for dash light power. It also has a ground wire. I figured the ground would go on one side by itself. The other two would go on the other side along with a wire connected to a 12V power source. Is this a correct setup? -Plz help, thanks
Ummm, no. If you wire it like that, you will let the smoke out........and we know the smoke is what makes it work!!! Hook the white dashlight power lead into your fusebox instrument cluster lighting fuse. Hook a 12v w/key on (not battery power) to one side of the switch, then hook your red wire to the tach to the other side of the switch. Hook the ground wire up to a GOOD solid metal ground. The green wire usually is the one for your rpm signal. If you have any more questions, or its still confusing, you may just want to have an experienced technician install it for you so you dont damage anything. I hate to see fried camaro parts!!!! Hope that helps.
Posted by DanA_F99_1977 (Member # 118) on 08 February, 2002 05:55 PM:
Why would you want to turn off your tach? Just curious.
Posted by Matt-01-SS (Member # 1150) on 08 February, 2002 09:27 PM:
quote:Originally posted by Steve da Wrench:
Hook the white dashlight power lead into your fusebox instrument cluster lighting fuse.
That is one of many confusing statements. All of what you wrote made no sense to me. What is letting the smoke out all about?? The tach is already grounded, and the rpm signal is already coming in. Someone told me to twist the red(tach power), and the white(tach lighting) wires together and put that on one side of the switch. The other side gets a wire connected to a 12v power supply. Makes sense to me. I just don't know if that would have the correct energy flow.
It's kinda bright at night and I'd rather just be able to turn it on if I wanted it on.
Posted by DanA_F99_1977 (Member # 118) on 09 February, 2002 08:21 AM:
Is this the stock tach in the dash or an add on? If it's the stock one, there is a dimmer switch, I still don't get it.
Posted by Matt-01-SS (Member # 1150) on 09 February, 2002 11:13 AM:
This is a 5" Autometer Phantom tach on my a-pillar.
Posted by DanA_F99_1977 (Member # 118) on 09 February, 2002 05:21 PM:
Oh, now I get it get it. Thanks. Sounds cool.
Posted by Steve da Wrench (Member # 1301) on 11 February, 2002 10:02 AM:
The entire purpose of having two seperate power wires (one for 12v power, and the white one is for dash bulb lighting), is so that if you hook the white wire into the fuse box(you need to figure out which fuse is for the dash lights), then when you dim the rest of the dashlights, it will automatically dim the illumination light in the tach also, thus eliminating the need to turn the tach off. I will see if I can find the fuse # for you and post that also. If you are still confused, then I highly recommend you have a qualified technician wire it for you. And the smoke thing..............that's a technician joke, ya know, ya let the smoke out (fry something electrically), and nothing works anymore, so in a sick minded theory, the smoke MUSTA been what was making it work, right?!?! Posted by Steve da Wrench (Member # 1301) on 11 February, 2002 10:13 AM:
What you want is fuse # 16 in the underdash fuse box, its a 5 amp fuse. Pull the fuse out, turn on your parklights, then with a test light, see which side of the connector that the fuse plugs into has 12 volts to it. Now attatch your white wire to OTHER (unpowered) side and insert the fuse to hold the wire in place. Now when you dim the dashlights, it will dim the tach light also. Hope this helped!!
