Complete box panther gauge installation how-to

[p71towny]

1. A volt meter would be a better way to go, safer as well.

2. Its just copper, no coolant will enter into your cab.

O.T. Pete, what in teh fuck looks like the devils finger coming out of your mirror adjuster?

[monterey1962]

Couple more questions:

1. Where does the ammeter hook up to under the hood? Any fuses needed for this or is it a direct line to the gauge?

2. My temp gauge is mechanical, but what I want to know is, is that copper line hollow and allowing coolant inside the cab or is it just a copper wire?

[85crownHPP]

yep, electric. So far the hottest its gotten is about 130 degrees... my engine temperature reads about 170-180 (w/180 degree T-stat). At first I thought the gauge was broken, becuause driving around town it never came off its minimun of 100.
I guess the cold weather and not having an AC condensor keep it extra cool
Of course the guage could be off... I guess Ill have to wait till summer and do some mountain driving to see for sure

[gadget73]

None of my guages are actually fused independant of the radio fuse. I didn't see the point in adding more inline fuse holders to tap off a circuit that was already protected by a fuse. They draw such a small amount of power I wasn't worried about them popping anything either. So far, no problems.

And I sorta fibbed. I have the wire taps, but they aren't actually in use right now. I currently have wires jammed under the fuse blades. The taps are in the trunk, but I've been either too busy or too lazy to install them.

Pete: is that an electric or mechanical sender? Looks electric. What temp does your trans read?

[85crownHPP]

Transmission temperature sensor

After dropping the pan, I found this to be the best spot to put it.
What you are looking at is a B&M transmission pan drain plug kit with an electric temperature sensor installed in place of the drain plug. All you have to do is drill a 1/2" hole and bolt in the special nuts and gasket. No leaks so far!

[85crownHPP]

10amp should be plenty - they dont need much current at all.
gadget pretty much summed it up.
For mine I used the cig lighter wiring (has its own fuse) for power and ground, and tapped into the ashtray light wire for illumination.
The hole I used was almost clear from under the dash, just the edge of a peice of insulation in the way.

edit: I forgot to mention my key on source... all I did was tap the key-on wire for the radio, and used that to trigger the relay thats powered by the cig lighter wiring.
I also have a bridged barrier strip you can see in there... since i have many many accessories

* this pic is old (pre-console) but the electronics in the ashtray cavity are the same*

[monterey1962]

Thanks for the info.

Here's the fuse tap I went with (actually, it's the only one I could find in town).



What size fuse should the tach need? 5amp? 10amp? Can this be used as the power source for the other gauges? If so, what size fuse could I get away with?

[gadget73]

What did you use for a key on power source for the tach? Also, what did you tap for the light source?

I tapped off something in the fuse box. The radio fuse I think. They make these neat little doohickys that plug in place of a fuse, then the fuse plugs into the top of it as a power tap. Its a small black thing about the size of a fuse with a short pigtail coming from it. I found them in Advance I think. Same thing for the lights, its tapped off the dash light fuse. Dimmer even works correctly that way, which frankly surprised me.

What gauge wire should be used to extend the tach wire to the coil?

I think I have 16 or 18 ga or something. Whatever I had laying around. It doesn't need to be very thick as its not carrying any substantial amount of current.

How hard is it to get through that hole in the firewall and under the dash? Anything to watch out for?

I fished it through a grommet that had been previously removed under the brake booster. Nothing special to watch out for, tho the grommets can be a bastard to poke through. I've actually just drilled holes in the rubber grommets before to fish wiring through.

One more thing: Will hooking in the gauges interfere with the EFI comp? Do I have to set it up so that the idiot lights and wiring are still connected?

No. The idiot light sender circuit is totally independant of the ECM. The engine temp sender for the computer is over by the thermostat in a fitting between the heater core hose and the manifold, and the ECM doesn't monitor oil pressure.

[monterey1962]

One more thing: Will hooking in the gauges interfere with the EFI comp? Do I have to set it up so that the idiot lights and wiring are still connected?

[monterey1962]

TACHOMETER

the only hard part is figuring out where to put it!

simply tap into the coil, here it appears to be in the green wire.

What did you use for a key on power source for the tach? Also, what did you tap for the light source? What gauge wire should be used to extend the tach wire to the coil?

How hard is it to get through that hole in the firewall and under the dash? Anything to watch out for?

[gadget73]

oil pressure is 1/4" NPT pipe thread. Not sure on the temp sender but its a standard size. I want to say 1/2".

[Paul_]

Dumb question, but what are the thread sizes for the senders? For example, 1/2" by 14npt.... What is ours? I'm referring to the oil pressure and the temp gauges. I'll have to determine trans temp at another time lol. The reason I ask is because I'm looking next year to install a set of Dakota Digital gauges(trans temp, volts, oil pressure, coolant temp)right above my hvac controls. Unfortunately they do not come with senders.

[85crownHPP]

i ran my wires through a hole near the brake booster

[BlackHawkA4]

Hey, Installing a tach. What's a good place to put the wire from inside the car to the engine bay? Didn't see it if you posted it.

[85crownHPP]

Actually, depending on the cluster, you might want the directional type bulbs. I noticed in the 90-91 speedos they use fiber-optic like materiel to channel the light to the outer face of the speedo. The little collector sits right in front of the bulb, so it might work better like that.

My older speedo doesnt work like that , so I used a side emitting style (inverted lense) LED replacement