I was installing some guages today and I started working on the lighting. I found the closest light to the guages(3 of them), which was the one where you adjust cold, warm, deice. I cut the 2 wires ( black and gray) so it looked like this: (ignore the `'s) (R=Red wire on guages) `````````````R RR Temp adj. light `````````````\ || / ______________\||/ Black from harness _________________ Gray``````````/||\ `````````````/ || \ `````````````B BB Temp adj. light (B=Black wire on guages) After I set it up like that, I pluged the battery up, and none of the dash lights worked, so I disconnected the battery. I disconnected my guage light wiring and just put caps on the wires from the harness. Still didnt work, now I was going to check the small fuse for "INST". It cracked when I was taking it out and I don't know if it was broken or fine. If it was fine, what could be the problem?(hopefully not bad) Is there anything wrong with my wiring? Any quick responses would be appreciated.
I need to buy a new fuse, I though black was power, and gray was ground, why did they make it so mistakable? Thanks PS, what kind of fuse do I have to buy, (the short one)?
Instrument light fuse has a 4 amp rating. Generally speaking, most American electrical systems, whether AC or DC, black is always ground. Any other color usually is for voltage. An exception would be the green wire in household wiring is always a safety ground.
You have to buy a fuse with the correct amperage rating. Length of the fuse doesn't denote capacity (though there are certain "standards"). Pull the burned fuse and take it to the store with you. You'll need the same length so it will fit. On one of the metal ends of the fuse you should find a stamped number - that is the amperage (i.e. 20A). You'll notice the fuses that can handle more amperage will have thicker pieces of metal inside.
Those things always seem to break on me too - even with the plastic "tool." If you don't have enough pieces to figure the length, just look at the spot you pulled it from.
Slawek, What kind of gauges are you installing, Mechanical, or electrical? The electrical connections are really very simple. Black is almost always ground. The gray wires on our cars are the lighting wires. The only time thay have voltage, is when you pull the light switch out, and turn on the dash lights, and/or the headlights. The best wire to use for gauge lights is the ashtray light. Just cut the bulb off, and use the single wire. On electrical gauges, there is usually a power wire, and a ground wire for each gauge. In addition, there is a power wire and a ground wire for each light. All the ground wires(for the gauges, and the lights) can be connected together, and attached to a single metal portion of the dash. The power wires for the gauges, can all be connected together, and run to a 12 volt key on source(fuse block or other wire) The power wires for the bulbs, can all be connected together, and run to the single gray wire (ashtray light) That's it, very simple. It wouldn't hurt to buy an inline fuse, and wire it into the power wire for the gauges. An extra fuse will never hurt.
Length of the fuse is 5/8 inch. Here is the page from a 1970 Skylark owner's manual with the info. You may need to blow the image up a bit.
