Well, I'll start with the installation that this problem followed...
I bought an autometer oil pressure guage to replace the stock one. I put it in the pod, and ran the wires down to the wiring harness. In the chiltons wiring diagram is says the ignition wire is solid pink. I went under the steering column to find the wire. In the set of wires coming right out of the stearing column i found a 16(maybe 14) guage pink wire. I cut the sleeve, pulled it back a little and spliced in the power wire for the guage. Then I grounded it to one of the fuses box mounting bolts. When I tested it, the guage didn't come on. I went back under there and looked for another solid pink wire. I found a bigger (12 guage or so) wire over near the hood release. It went into a wire pack running along the very side of the car. This time I got power and everything was good. Tested it, and everything was working good. Then about a week, maybe less, later the guage started sputtering, then the radio would shut off then come back on, and then the guages started to turn off then back on. This radio and guage thing happened after I did my motor swap, and I found a ground strap that i forgot to hook up. It's located right on the passenger side firewall, and it should be connected to the grounding bolt on the passenger side head. Instead of paining with getting to that bolt, I grounded it to one of the vavle cover bolts (centerbolt) and the problem stopped. Since I tried putting the guage in is when it came back. Seems the only things that dim/flicker are things that would be turned on by the ignition because the engine doesn't really sputter or try to die when this stuff happens.
The volt gauge varies. Sometimes it'll go down into the high yellow, but other times it'll sit at 13. The problem doesn't only happen with bumps or rattles going down the road. It happens even when I'm sitting at a light.
The battery is pretty new, but it got completely drained once. I took it to parts store, and they tested it which it passed and got fully charged. The altenator should be about a year and a half old (if the last owner told me correctly), maybe two.

Any Ideas?

Ryan

 

if you have that ground strap grounded to hte valve covers i would move it to the firewall like it is supposed to be, along with the ground you ran for the guage, i would move it to a better place on the chassis, not on the fuse box bolt like you said.

are you sure that you have the ignition wire that you were looking for ? i would say disconnect the guage and drive for a while to see if the problem is straightened out from that, and if it doesn't then you know that it is not the guage causing your problems, it is something else.

is the pink wire from the ignition switch for the light on the guage or the actual guage to work ? if it is just for hte illumination you might want to try running it off a relay, and have a constant on the relay along wiht a lead for the guage lights, you may be better off that way.

those are just some of my thoughts

Keith

 

Well, my and my buddy were trouble shooting this problem, and found that my battery was only grounded to the engine. This would mean that the engine would have to be grounded to the body or frame to complete a good ground. Instead of changing the ground on my valve cover, we ran a wire from the negative battery terminal to a spot on the body/frame. Problem is solved, temporarily. Soon I'm going to get a bunch of 8 guage wire, and start making a few good grounds. Same idea as those grounding kits you may have seen.

Thanks for the reply

Ryan