I posted this in General Tech, but I actually think it'd be better for me to ask it here. Okay, I've been fighting this thing for nearly a week now, and I'm completely out of ideas. Does ANYONE out there have any clue as to how I'd go about wiring up aftermarket gauges to REPLACE the OE gauge cluster in my 1993 Camaro Z28?? I've tried using the harness, bypassing the harness with a direct feed (wired to a relay) and so forth, with no success. Even when I ran a 10g wire for my ground to the gauges, my car still acts like it has a bad ground, as the stereo will cut out on & off if I turn it up too loud. I'm so fed up with this thing, can someone here help me out?? I can't tell you how grateful I'd be for ANY help...

 

Do you have the sending units that go with the gauges? I may be incorrect but i dont think you can use the factory sending units with after market gauges. where are you placing the gauges? i have a post a few pages back with some diagrams of what im doing . feel free to use the ideas.

 

Yeah, I have EVERYTHING. I dropped a total of $1400 on the gauges and their associated sensors. I haven't wired everything up yet- just the tach and fuel gauge, but NONE of my gauges are working. I'm replacing the factory cluster, so 6 of them will sit in there; then I have 2 in an a-pillar pod, 2 on a dash-mounted pod, and 2 more mounted in the spot where 93-96 Camaros have that useless cassette tape holder (12 gauges total)...

 

If you have the sending units and all associated wiring installed correectly then all should be fine. who are they made by? Call the manufacture and get them to help trouble shoot the problem

 

They're Nordskog digital gauges. I tried wiring to the OE cluster harness, but I can't seem to get it to run right. The gauges are on constantly, regardless of the key's position, and the stereo & tach act like they have a bad ground, since the tach goes NUTS at anything higher than 4300 RPM, and the stereo cuts out if I turn the radio up too loud. I'm talking with another member here about how he did it, and he said he ran new wires for EVERYTHING, and went with an aftermarket standalone PCM to replace his factory one. I really don't want to resort to that to get the gauges working yet, especially if I don't have to...

 

your radio problems are probably do to the charging system not working, the power wire the little red wire on the alt to power up the regualtor runs into the factory cluster so you need to hook the the little red wire to a switched ignition source. My thinking on this is GM did this to keep people from taking clusters out to keep the milage off cars if there out the cars charging system isnt going to work and stop the car after a couple of miles of driving.

 

So basically, I need to attach the red alternator wire (on the OE cluster harness) to a switched ignition source? Where would I look to find this switched source?? If I just hooked up the voltmeter to the alternator wire, would that solve the problem?

 

Im sorry if I sound like a dick here, but if you cant find a 12 volt switched ignition source you shouldnt be trying to work on a project like this, it dont look like you have any electrical background, you have to watch what your doing, if you hook your meter to a wrong wire you could blow the air bag, Im not trying to be mean Im just making a statement hooking gauges up arnt that big of a deal they come with the senders you just have to hook everything up like the directions say, I could see having problems with a charging system after most people dont know that GM does little things like that, trying to use a relay to hook gauges up? all a relay does is lets you use a low amperage source like a micro switch that cant handle a load and run higher amperage load or turn on one load when another turns off. I had just looked in my GM manual for the IC harness plug I have a listing for what all the wires go to, if it helps fine, but it dont seam as if its going to

 

I don't know how the relay was supposed to help, either. It was a recommendation from someone local who was supposedly an electrical guru. I wouldn't deploy the airbag unless I touched the airbag wire, right?

No, I don't have much of an electrical background. I've done all my electrical work with everything else on my car, so I figured this couldn't be much more difficult. My father could help immensely, seeing how he's an electrical engineer, but he's far too busy to bother with helping me. As far as finding an ignition switch source, I don't think it'd be a problem, but I really don't know what that means- you could say I'm "not down with the electrical lingo". Could you explain to me what a switched ignition source is, in laymen's terms? Also, could you explain to me how I should go about wiring the alternator wire to restore my charging system? Do I only need to hook up my voltmeter gauge (the GAUGE, not the TOOL), or must I link the red wire to both the voltmeter gauge AND a switched ignition source?

No, that page doesn't help, not because I don't understand it, but because it doesn't match up with ANY of my wires in that plug. I was using Shoebox's wiring diagram, which appears to match my harness better (even though it's from a 95 Camaro, and mine's a 93), seen here:

http://shbox.com/1/95_z_cluster_pinout.jpg

You know, I don't know a lot about electrical, but that's what I figured message boards like these were for. I figured somebody here would at least be kind and helpful enough to tell me where to look for a switched ignition source, rather than just giving me a lecture about how I could accidentally deploy my airbag. I'm trying to learn here, but no one's willing to teach me, only criticize me...

 

the list I have above is out of a 93 fbody book and matched mine 100%, Im not trying to lecture you, Im just warning you if you hook a wrong wire up you could set off an air bag, the air bag warning light is in that harness and could set it off even tho its just a warning light wire it can back feed into and set them off it only takes milliamps to set a bag off.

as for the term switched source, you need to go the the ignition switch and look for a wire thats hot only when the key is on.

 

Thank you so much, and I do appreciate your concern. I'm just getting frustrated with my (lack of) progress on this project. Oh, as far as mine being different from your wiring schematic, I guess GM made two completely different harnesses for the Camaro and Firebird. Your pins are listed "A1-A16" and "B1-B16". On my plug it's labeled "C1-C16" and "D1-D16". Also, Shoebox's wiring order in his schematic sheet matches mine perfectly (except I don't have ASR). On my plug- C1 is empty, C2 has a tan wire, C3 is gray, C4 is black, C5 is empty, C6 is yellow, C7 is light blue, C8 is brown/white, C9 is empty, C10 is tan/white, C11 is light green, C12 is red, C13 is gray, C14 is orange, C15 is blue, and C16 is brown. I won't bother listing the other row of wires, but as you can see with what I listed, my wiring schematics match the 95 Camaro's layout perfectly, but is quite different from you 93 Firebird. Hell, the tachometer wire is WHITE on my plug, but it says in your diagram that it should be ORANGE. Why GM chose to wire up the Firebird completely different from the Camaro is beyond me, but whatever...

 

Firebird and Camaro's have two different plugs and wiring because the gauge clusters are different... But, 93+ Firebird and 97+ Camaros have the same plug style because the gauge clusters are the same basic design... 93-96 camaros use a totally different plug.

The fuse panel has a couple empty spots... One I know is switched power... Fuse it and use that if you don't mind running a wire.

 

Do I just look for one of the empty slots that has metal contacts in them? Also, what fuse you think I should run? Would a 30-amp be overkill for 12 digital gauges + 6 dummy lights?

 

Nevermind, I found a burned out ECM BAT fuse, so I replaced it, and I wired the gauges up to the pink wires, which apparently are a switched ignition source. So, problems solved there. Now how do I go about wiring it up so that the charging system will work properly??

 

Fire Marshall Bill? Is That You?