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9-5 boost gauge - help with wiring

9K views 26 replies 10 participants last post by  abdukted1456 
#1 ·
I have to get a few different things. Someone help, I suck at electrical anything...

one is constant 12V power ( I am assuming I can tap pretty much anything, but what's easiest?)

the other one I wasnt sure of... is accessory power, or it mentions the headlight switch. (and the switch has no less than 800 wires coming off it)

basically, the wire that has no power when the headlight are off, and when I turn it on, it will power the guage.

help?
 
#4 ·
Yes is this an electrical gauge with a sender you are locating under hood?

Can you easily identify the wires that are powering the lightbilb in the switch? That would be a good source of power for the illumination as it should dim with the rest of the dash.

Tboy
 
#6 ·
it's an electric prosport. (should look nice: green backlight, orange needle, black gauge face like stock, and a brushed silver bezel that matches the aero dash)

It's LED lit, so i don't want it to dim. But i can wire it (if i have a wire that is connected to the headlamp on off) so that i light up white in the day, and green at night.


or I can skip that and have it green or white all the time...

the sender is actually in the dash and already all wired(except power). There was more vaccum hose than sender wire so it worked out better that way.
 
#7 ·
I have an Autometer SportComp II electric boost gauge. I don't know if the Prosport gauges operate the same, but every time I start the car, the gauge recalibrates itself, thus the need for a constant 12V source. When I first wired it, I tapped the cig lighter fuse, but had problems because the power is interrupted during cranking, leading to inaccurate readings. After some trial and error, I ended up using the fuel pump fuse for power with a fuse tap from Radio Shack. A better spot might be the ignition, which I may eventually swap it to. Let us know how it works out.
 
#8 · (Edited)
dan, does yours have a peak hold and warning function?
if so, i have had this gauge for about two months now. get that sender in the engine bay and closer to where you tap off of the intake manifold.

ps. mine is set to be green all the time. i used the same power and ground that you would use for a regular autometer with a standard light. and i beleive i ran a wire to the back of the sid for switched ignition for some reason...

you are gonna love that gauge by the way.

here's some multimedia:



 
#9 · (Edited)
before I tap anything, what wires exactly... ignition, where do i get that... a fuse or a wire someplace???

Nick, what wire exactly did you tap behind the SID??? I just got a regular one, no peak/hold, so I don't even know if I need to do this.

EDIT:
I prefer to leave the sender where it is, due the enormous PAIN this was to get it set up this far... (aero with esp "box" and huge brake booster was impossible to get the hose through the firewall unless you go from the cabin out and fish the hose with something long) I have a few wires left to tap... but will it create an inaccurate reading? they gave me 1000 feet of vac hose and like 3 inches of wire :roll:
 
#11 ·
You can also use the leads in the handsfree plug behind the SID/Radio. I used to have all the color codes/pin numbers for 12 on /12 switched but you can probably find it on genuinesaab reference section. But I'll look around and post up if you need it...
 
#14 ·
maybe I am making this more complicted than it needs to be.

I put a fuse tap on the ciggy lighter fuse, and ran the sender and guages red wires (constant 12V) and the orange (accessory) to this tap... the gauge lights green as desired and performs the opening ceremony, and rests just under 0.

now I gotta take a road test and see if it reads accurate/if the sender is wired up OK, and if when the car cranks everything still works right.

I think I am gonna say screw the white lighting and leave it green (which is pretty much why I got this one in the first place)
 
#15 · (Edited)
ignore the ghetto pod, it's getting molded and wrapped soon.





alright, it's in, it does the opening ceremony, it reads 13-15 psi in 4th and 5th....

seems OK...but it doesn't do the closing ceremony... it just shuts off suddenly with the headlights when I turn the car off.

So either my red 12V constants are not tapping the right fuse (I have it on ciggy lighter) or the orange is wrong (also ciggy)

I tried fuel pump as suggested and that didn't work either...
ideas???
 
#16 ·
I also always thought that the cig lighter was a constant 12v.....but its not. My glowshift needed a batt 12v to keep the memory, and for that I ran off of the fuse in the back of the radio.

With a voltmeter, am sure you can find some 12 volt constant battery source.

Perhaps the radio fuse, I know that you can turn on the radio when the key is not in the ign, so maybe thats a constant 12v?
 
#18 ·
What pod is that? Does it fit well? Looks like a sick pod/gauge setup. I NEED Air/Fuel and Boost gauges in my car now.
the pod is from parts for saabs. I can't say I am 100% pleased with it...

It doesn't look anything like the pod on their website.

it had to be trimmed to get some excess material off to make it fit, which makes the edges look unfinished.

it still doesn't fit flush, it will need some heat to soften one of the edges and smooth it out a little.

it is basically the same as the speedparts pod I could have gotten from Nick, but at least the speedparts pod is made for 9-5... this one is "universal"

I plan to upholster it, although I almost like the black, with the brushed silver bezel of my gauge, it echose the look of the black aero dash with brushed metal dash panel... :cool:
 
#20 ·
yeah I think I am gonna keep it green all the time, it's plenty bright in the day....

I do want to get that closing ceremony going, it seems harsh when I turn off the car and the gauge just "snaps" off....I am gonna try the radio fuse next on a suggestion from a guy on SC... the radio does work with ignition off so sounds like a good bet.

p.s. I have a multimeter but no clue on how the hell to work it, it has like a million switches and modes on it. :oops:
 
#23 ·
Yes, I tapped the fuse in the back of the radio for my gauge. But I suggest you tap the radio fuse on the fuse panel. I just did this with my brothers NG, but we used the cig lighter(his did not need a constant 12V).
 
#25 ·
you know what, I went back and re-read the website carefully./

they do not explicitly state it will do a closing, only an opening.
the next step up they state it will do both.

maybe I have had it right all along. :oops:

oh well.
 
#26 ·
yeah, i went and read that about an hour ago. i dont think that the one you have does a closing ceremony.

Still, for the price, that gauge can not be beat. I love mine. the peak hold function (while entirely un-necessary) is so helpful in diagnosing my boost spike issue thing that i still have going on occaisionally.

The warning function is even more useful. Get an eyeful of flashing red lights and it screams let off the gas quick.
 
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