O.K. Here's what were dealing with I own a 91' RS I'm thinking and I'm swapping out basically everything out of my 86'Camaro for good reason anywho, I put in a 350 that's pretty strong and it has a T-5 tranny, both were V-8 5 speed cars and now here's where the problems begin I'm trying to rewire the car basically
I had to use my 86 steering column because of not wanting an airbag and not having a key for it but anywho I've took the computer out completely and trying to get the dash to work correctly lights, etc. I'm in the middle of this project and lately been running into hair pullers between bad grounds and things grounding through other things and my tachs off quite a bit off but I'll deal with it later if I half to least it works and I can always use my monster tach but would rather stay stock looking, anywho
the headlights are only half working along with the dashlights but we've got my speedo working but the purple wire (on drivers side firewall) that goes to the speedo I'm pretty sure (and it works if hooked up) is one that made my dashlights go from dim to bright when I grounded it (don't really understand) but this is long enough problably looks like a book and believe my I could go on but I'm a Camaro lover and determined to get everything working
hope someone can help seriously anyway thanks

 

Just kind of an FYI (based on what I understand). Your car does not have a ground. You have 4 rubber tires, and hopefully no metallic parts touching the earth, thusly you have no path to ground. What is commonly reffered to as the ground, is the chassis.

Think about your car just electrically for a minute. It's power source is a battery, which means that electricity flows from one pole, to the other in a loop. Your negative battery terminal ties to your chassis or "ground" correct? What car manufactures do to save material, is use the chassis of your vehicle as the negative wire in your circuits.

Think about installing an audio amplifier (if you have). You have to run a wire from the positive side all the way throughout the car to the amplifier, yet you just tie the "ground" to the chassis. This actually ties it to the negative battery terminal and completes the circuit.

So when your dashlights worked properly or better because you had a better path to "ground", you actually just improved the quality of the completion of the circuit.

I hope that wasn't too confusing. I know it was long winded, but when I learned this I thought it was really neat.

 

well actually I already knew that information I'm actually currently in school earning an electronics degree which makes these problems even worse because I feel like I should be able to figure this stuff out but still having problems and progress is slow so thanks but anybody else able to help, also I'm using my steering column out of the 86' so the plugs don't match exactly up and I had to due some rearranging of the wires so the colors matched and I still have extra wires and some extra plugs from removing the computer well lets see if someone knows how to guide me in the right direction

 

Well It's me again and I've got all of my dash lights working as long as the purple wire on the drivers side firewall ( which I think goes to my speedo ) is grounded?? if it's not grounded half of my dash lights come on with the key and when I turn on my headlights that half goes off and the other half comes on???
I had some bad sockets that the bulbs go in is the reason I only had half of the damn dash lights in the first place kinda fustrating when ya think it's something more complicated than it is but I wonder if anybody's got a clue about this problem anyway here's another one for ya can anybody out there tell my how to recalibrate my tachometer I'd rather have the stock look but I can't handle it being off like it is it'll drive me crazy. Well any help is greatly appreciated !!

 

Well if your wiring is anything like a 84 firebird there is NO purple wire going to the speedo or anythign else in the cluster. Maybe yours is different.

I do believe 82Camaro Berl was leading you in the right direction without knowing your personal past. Instead of blowing him off as someone who doesn't know anything maybe you should thank him for the help and continue with the new information.

 

well first off thanks to all that responded or viewed my wiring problems thread anywho to the 84' Firebird I imagine your speedo is cable driven instead of electrically feed that explains you not having the purple wire on the drivers side firewall but anyway thanks and I do believe with the help of my buddy that we've got my wiring pretty much figured out ( better be I already put back in my dash and instrument cluster ) and everything's working my tach's still off but at least it works and I've got a Monster Tach but just would rather stay stock looking, does anyone know how to recalibrate a tach?? anyway we had to run a jumper wire from one of the plugs to a ground (ya know what I mean) and then I could remove the purple wire from it's previous position on a bolt and hook it back up to my speedo where it belongs anyway between that a bad headlight switch that if you messed with it worked and a couple blown fuses we managed to get everything working yaaaa! And now it's on to other things since my project that I started with just keep growing into basically a complete tear down and rebuild (ya never know how much work there is until you actually start and your halfway done and your looking at everything and ask yourself why? And you know why but damn, ya didn't half to get carried away but when I'm done it'll be worth it, and I'll know every piece of my car inside and out along with every wire too!) Next on the list is swapping the gas tank since the 91' has a fuel pump in it and mine's on the pass side of block, and pulling the tank was much more fustrating than I thought it would be I'm yet to put it back in it needs a little cleaning and a new pickup filter on the tube inside the gas tank and my console won't fit all the seated because the E-brake is self adusting and is bigger I guess the newer columns have a bigger slot cut in them or something the one out of the 91' is gone so I couldn't compare the two I'm just swapping my E-brake setup out of my 86' which you have to manually adjust and is smaller and will allow my console to fit, not a big problem but it's like everything I go to do is like this no matter how simple of a job it is something makes it into more this is just one everythings been like this but enough complaining I chose to do it so nobody made me anyway I'll let ya know the next progress report later. Thanks:rockon:

 

Well it's me again no new replies huh. anywho we've just about got it whooped anyways, the gas tanks in, the fuel line replaced (with stainless steel braided hose, looks good!!) anyway just a couple more wire looms to put on along with a rerouting of the wires of course, and finding a spot just right for the vaccum canister which I may need since my baby only pulls about 5 p.s.i of vaccum at an idle. sorry just had to add that any way I'm a frequent visitor to the junk yards if ya know what I mean and the other day I seen a jewel (well kind of ) anyway it was a 91 or 92 Camaro and it had the instrument cluster still in it I was amazed and started taking the tach out of it since mine was off and driving me nuts, well I get home and put the tach in my instrument cluster fire it up and it's still off I was greatly dissapointed but deceided to go back the next day ( to the same junk yard ) and go ahead and try the hole cluster instead, well this time I was happy instead of dissapointed because my tachs reading correctly now !!!!!!!! Ya !! you don't know how much that bugged me anyway they are both V-8 instrument clusters so I guess one of the chips the tachs connected to in the cluster is why the readings were off but anyways see ya and good luck!

 

Just a dumb question, was the tach in a 6 cylinder car? If if came out of a 6 cyl you will probably need to get the cluster out of a 8 cyl car for it to function properly.

Just a random thought...