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Painless Wire Harness Qustions

mattbyrne

Newbie
Joined
May 15, 2018
Messages
4
I'm in the process of installing a Painless Wire Harness in my Bronco. I have updated by alternator to the 3G one wire from Wild Horses and replaced amp meter with voltmeter. There is a voltage regulator located on the back of the gauge cluster, do I need this anymore? I thought the voltmeter for the original alternator was on the fire wire? If it's not a voltage reg what is it?

Now that I have replaced the amp meter with voltmeter should I remove the unused wires in the painless loom or just leave them there?
 

904Bronco

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Sep 28, 2004
Messages
5,749
Loc.
San Martin, CA
I'm in the process of installing a Painless Wire Harness in my Bronco. I have updated by alternator to the 3G one wire from Wild Horses and replaced amp meter with voltmeter. There is a voltage regulator located on the back of the gauge cluster, do I need this anymore? I thought the voltmeter for the original alternator was on the fire wire? If it's not a voltage reg what is it?

Now that I have replaced the amp meter with voltmeter should I remove the unused wires in the painless loom or just leave them there?

On the back of the cluster > Yes it is needed, reduces voltage to 5v so the gauges will work properly. So 12v Key in run position only power to plus (+) side of it and then (-) to gauges.

Unused wires? One thought - leave them so that they might be repurposed later once the harness has been loomed up.
 

DirtDonk

Contributor
Bronco Guru
Joined
Nov 3, 2003
Messages
47,345
What 904 said. These are two separate voltage regulators we're talking about.
The old voltage regulator under the hood for the charging system is no longer used, but the voltage regulator for the instruments is still very much needed for the Temperature and Pressure and Fuel gauges. It was never used for the ammeter anyway, so nothing you've done changes it's use.
It's also called a "constant voltage supply" or an "instrument voltage regulator" or "IVR" for short.

The big Black w/yellow wire that would normally have gone through the ammeter loop is an absolute must-have wire, so you don't do anything with that other than leave it connected to itself and tucked safely away under the dash. Just because it no longer works with the ammeter does not mean that all of it's other functions are no longer needed.

Paul
 
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