Ok, trying to wire up my electric exhaust cutout, and I need a switched 12v source. I did some poking with my voltmeter today and found a place in my fuse box that gives me 12v when the ignition is on.

What I'm wondering is: Is it ok to use this connector? I cant tell what it's supposed to be for, and I dont know if stealing 5 amps to run the cutout would hurt anything.

If not this connector, where might I find a good source to get power from? thanks.



Sorry for the bad pic, couldnt get camera to focus. The circled one is the one I want to use. The writing to the right says IGN with an arrow pointing to the circled connector, and another arrow pointing to the one directly below.

 

Well, I'm not trickster so I don't know if I'm allowed to answer or not.
Yes you can use that to tap off 12V. I'd suggest putting a fuse inline with what you are hooking up to it though.

 

I'd appreciate input from anyone.

Thanks for the confirmation. And the cutout comes with a fuse already.

 

Ok well I also realized that there is no easy way to tap the wire leading to the back of the thing, because I'm not sure which one it is, so I'd have to stick a blade connector in there from the front and that would look pretty ghetto, so I need another way...

 

Go to the junkyard and look for a car that has an accessory that taps into there and take the connector. It can be any car, thay all have pretty much the same taps on the fuse blocks.

 

Well the problem is that I dont know what option I would be looking for, especially because it says IGN beside it. I believe ignitions were standard equipment on all cars.

It doesnt look like a fuse goes there though, so I really have no clue what to do..

 

The auto dimming mirror was one option that plugged into there.
The IGN tag is simply telling you that that is an ignition switched power source.

 

Ah ok thx. I will try to find one, but most of the cars around here are 82-85 models with no options at all. I'll have to look at the thing from behind again and see if there is some way of tapping whatever wire leads to that thing from behind..

 

tapping the fuse box for 5 amps would work fine. just dont do like the idiot who owned my car before me. he ran the 30 amp cooling fan straight from the fuse box. it melted the wire and that part of the box. if you want to hook up something with a high amp draw buy a relay.

 

Haha I dont think I'd ever do that. I just wish I knew more about wiring these sort of things. With the way the wires come off the back of the thing, it's hard to tell what's what. Not to mention all this other wiring under there for the alarm and the stereo. Looks like a jungle in there.

 

Hello 305q_ta86,

What you can do is tap into connector C238 which is a power junction box located behind the left kick panel above the hood release cable. If you need a connector for it you can find one in the junkyard in the camaros and firebirds up until late production models in 1989. I would post a picture of it except that I have a slight technical difficulty with a hard drive.

 

Awesome. Thank you. I will go have a look as soon as I can, and see if I can find it. Much appreciated.

I'll let you know if I run into trouble and need that pic.

 

Would that C238 connector be able to support a switched wire for my electric fan? I think I'm looking at around 10 amps...

 

The amperage rating at that connector is 20 amp and it is hot all the time, therefore your fan might (remember might) run continuosly even with the key off and nobody around the car.

 

So then that would be no different from running it straight to the battery...is there a switched source anywhere i can use for my fan??

 

I run a switch the just grounds the wire leading to the fan switch. That way it'll run all the time with the engine on or if I flip the switch off, it'll act like stock.