Aftermarket Gauge cluster install question

[JAS14]

Hey, I'm new to this forum. I have a 1971 base charger that originally came with a 318, but I swapped it out for a 440 last year. This summer I decided to invest in the interior and bought an aftermarket 6 set, Mopar, auto meter gauge cluster and bezel from Classic industries.

I pulled my original dash cluster out, and in the process unhooked one heavy red wire, and one heavy black wire that were attached to studs in the back of the original gauge cluster. ( the wires were side by side on the right hand side) I also unhooked a bullet connector from the back that contains all the input wires for the car reading. ( fuel, oil, temp, etc).

I learned something new last night when I tried to start the car with the gauge cluster out of it, and the whole car didn't have any power. ha.

Now to the new cluster and my question. The bezel is 100% plastic, there are no hookups coming from the back like the original had. So I can't attach any wires to the bezel, because like i mentioned..its plastic. The heavy red and black wires I disconnected from the original cluster have constant power when the battery is hooked up. I imagine these wires provided power to the input bullet connector. My question is, where do I place the positive red wire now? I think it has to be connected for the car to do anything. I hope I made all of that make sense, Thanks in advance. JAS

 

[moparryder]

Hi. I have seen this before. What happened is you disconnected the ammeter. The ammeter is a in line gauge that connects to the main power supply to vehicle. There is no negative wire supplied to the gauge. The two heavy gauge wires that were attached to your ammeter by threaded studs need to be connected together to supply power to vehicle. Since your running a aftermarket setup also, you will not have a threaded post so use a solid way to connect the wires or search for a thread on bypassing the ammeter.

 

[JAS14]

That was EXACTLY how you described! Thanks a lot! I connected the two wires together, and just like magic all power was restored to the car.

Since I'm running an after market cluster, do you have any suggestions on how to get switched 12V power to my gauges. I realize I could splice into the ignition switch wires, but I was hoping I could by pass cutting into a brand new harness.

I also need to find a way to connect the gauge lights to my light switch, that only come on when I pull the switch for the head lights/ park lights.

 

[67 coronet]

all the other wiring connections should be in the bundle that originally hooked to your old dash.you just need a wiring diagram to see which wire is which.

 

[sleepar]

You could use a test lite and probe for the one that operates the various functions... there should be a wire to the original radio that has the dimmer switch function and is all ready spliced in would be my choice of wire...