Can anyone here help? I am ready to throw these gauges through the wall. I have 2 gauges and I have been working on this stupid project for 3 days now! The car is in pieces and I am at my wits end. I have a water temp and an oil pressure gauge. Both autometer sport comp. I want to use these plus the ones that are there. I was told to hook up to the existing sending units. But there are THREE wires on them. Does ANYONE know which ones to use? If I have to use the new sending units and drill into the head and manifold I am taking these pieces of crap back to summit. I was told this is a half hour job and 20 minutes of it is figuring out where to mount the gauge. I have already blew up my tach because I followed autometers instructions. They tell me to hook up to the tach output on the MSD so I do. I turn on the power and the needle goes backwards and stays at 8 grand. Apparently I needed the tach adapter that goes on the coil side of the MSD. I even asked while I was there and they said I needed nothing else to hook it up. Now they say the tach is broken and they will not take it back because I hooked it up wrong. I don't want to do that to these ones. Can anyone PLEASE help me? This is my last hope.

Eric

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Teal 1991 Camaro R.S., T-Tops,
Leather, Re-worked 700r4 also w/kit,
MSD ignition, MSD 8.5 mm. superconductor wires,
MSD Coil, ADS superchip, Open element air cleaner,
K-n-N filter, Gutted cat, Flowmaster cat-back system,
Edelbrock TES headers, March 3piece billet underdrive pulleys
3.73 gears
http://www.geocities.com/gitarz2/camaro.html
I was shocked to see that companies sold a taillight
set for a rustang! Since when do they have taillights????

 

Did they not come with instructions or a wiring diagram?

one wire is for +12v.
one wire is for ground
one wire is for the sender

the instructions should state what color wire is for what.

Chances are they will not work with the stock senders. Somewhere in the instructions it should tell you what senders you will need.
You don't even want to try to drill/tap new holes you will surely butcher something. Use a Y adapter to mount the correct sensors for your new guages and your stock sensors in the same hole.

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Tracy /AKA IROCKZ4me

• 355 cid
• AFR heads
• Arizona Speed & Marine hydraulic roller cam w/ AFR hydra-rev kit
• modified SLP runners
• TRW forged pistons/ceramic coated
• fully balanced
• Edelbrock headers/ceramic coated
• SLP cat-back
• Paxton supercharger
• Nitrous Express nitrous oxide

My IROC-Z
EFI Performance Club on Yahoo



[This message has been edited by IROCKZ4me (edited December 30, 2000).]

 

I know which wires the gauges are. I need to know which one to splice into on the existing sending units. I was told by the moderator that I can go off of the sensors(water temp on manifold and oil pressure above oil filter)But didn't tell me which wires on these sensors to splice into. There are more than one wire on these sensors.

Eric

 

I don't know off the top of my head if the autometer sport comp gauges use the same sender resistances as the GM senders. If not the gauges will give incorect readings.
Did your gauges come with senders? If they did and if you have an ohm meter (or access to one) you can test them to verify if they are the same.
If they are you are in business.
I have TPI instead of TBI and my senders may be different from yours. However the way mine are wired are as follows:
The coolant temp sender on the intake manifold is a two wire type and it is for the ECM. The coolant temp sender for the gauge is in the drivers side cylinder head in between and slightly above the front two sparkplugs. I has only one wire.
The oil pressure gauge sender at the back of the block also only has one wire. It is next to (on a factory y adapter) an oil pressure switch that has two wires.
Both of my gauge senders (H2O temp & oil press.) only use one wire each. The senders for ECM functions use multiple wires.
When I get a chance I'll check one off my friends TBI cars to see if they are the same.

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Tracy /AKA IROCKZ4me

• 355 cid
• AFR heads
• Arizona Speed & Marine hydraulic roller cam w/ AFR hydra-rev kit
• modified SLP runners
• TRW forged pistons/ceramic coated
• fully balanced
• Edelbrock headers/ceramic coated
• SLP cat-back
• Paxton supercharger
• Nitrous Express nitrous oxide

My IROC-Z
EFI Performance Club on Yahoo

 

You are the man. That is what I needed to know. I am pretty sure that they are hte same senders because others here have said that they have used them. Is the water temp one just a piece that slides onto a metal pole? (no clip) If so, I am in business. Now for the oil pressure one. From what I can see Mine has 3 wires. But by what you are saying, I am seeing something different. I will have to look. I will jack the car up and get underneath it and see. I would have bet all my money that they are three wires on one clip. When I bolted on my headers I unhooked that sensor for more clearence and when I fired up the car for the first time after the installation, the gauge didn't work because I forgot to hook it back up. Thanks for the info. Let me know after you see the TBI.

Eric

 

Hey man, My TBI has 3 wires. one power (5V not 12V), one ground, and one output. IF you have acess to a DVM unplug your sender and check all three wires. The ground will register a really low voltage maybe even negative. the power will register at 5v and the output will register something different if the ground and output are very similardo a continuity check on them to ground. the one that doesn'thave continuity is your outputwhich is the one that you need to hook to. If you do end up having to install another oil pressure sending unit there is a port of one on the drivers side on top of the block beside the distributor. It's on the same ledge that the intake sits on.

BTW: While you are checking the wires make sure the ignition is on. But don't start the car(it's not neccessary)

Hope this helps man.

Later,
Lars

 

Lars,
Thanks for the help. My gauges are up and running now. It turns out that I had to use the sending units that came with them and had to custom make some t-fittings to get them all to work. Thanks for the reply.

Eric

 

EROC, see your previous post.

Tim