Rewiring stock gauge cluster

[mduenas]

Hey Guys,

I unfortunately have a wiring disaster in my Bronco I picked up in late December. All the wiring is a mess and I can't tell where anything goes to or comes from. I am trying to figure out how to wire the stock gauge cluster again. I have aftermarket oil, water, alt and gas now, and the gauges are hideous. I really want to delete them, but don't know where to begin. I'm not so great with wiring. Does anyone have any pointers for reverting back to stock? All the stock connectors are intact and I have gotten all new gauges, so I know it will work once I get it hooked up.

Thank you so much, and I'm sorry if this is too vague.

 

[Pa PITT]

...
6:00 this evening & no one has offered any help to this young man. Come on guys. You all know how good I am at wiring so I hate to be the one to start this off..
.........................
... I overhauled my IH Tractor putting sleeves & bearing in it.. But this under dash crap has me buffaloed at what I need to do. maybe this will act as a Bump to get you some help.
... And welcome aboard..

 

[omureebe]

Here are links to wiring diagrams for many years. It shows all the color codes for the wires, as they're all purposed. What I did with mine, which was a mess, was to remove the entire harness and go through it removing what the PO did and patching up where the wires were decrepit. Kept me busy at night for a week or so!

http://seabiscuit68.tripod.com
http://classicbroncos.com/forums/showthread.php?t=131471&highlight=wiring+diagrams

 

[mduenas]

Thank you for the diagrams. I was having trouble finding the right one. I have never seen a wiring job so bad as this one. I am getting the feeling I will need to buy a new wiring harness and redo it all. Every their wire is cut and and spliced to something else.

 

[suckerpunched]

you say stock connectors are intact. I don't know if this will help you but it's a picture I took when I was working on mine. it's a 74, I swapped out my ammeter for a volt meter after i took the picture, thats why the label is on that one wire. ammeter would have had a wire from the charging system passing through the loop on the back of the gauge.

 

[mduenas]

you say stock connectors are intact. I don't know if this will help you but it's a picture I took when I was working on mine. it's a 74, I swapped out my ammeter for a volt meter after i took the picture, thats why the label is on that one wire. ammeter would have had a wire from the charging system passing through the loop on the back of the gauge.

This helps so much! Thank you! Is here a reason you went with a voltmeter? Since I am redoing this, would you recommend switching from amp to volt?

Thank you!

 

[suckerpunched]

some people make the argument that a volt meter is better, it tells you more. I could go either way. But I put an early 90's era fuel injected engine in mine and routed alot of the wiring differently than stock. The original bronco wiring routed virtually all the wiring from one side of the engine compart into the cab, across the dash, and out the other side. In most cases, to make an ammeter work, the main charge wire from the alternator to the battery has to run through the gauge. Along with engine swap i got an alternator that put out alot more power than the original one, needed a bigger wire. I just didn't like the idea of running all that into the cab the long way around back to the battery. with a volt meter you can tap into pretty much any wire that has 12v with key on and it works. I used my original harness, but cut it all open and removed a bunch of stuff I didn't need, and rerouted other stuff. If I was running the stock engine configuration, I probably would have left the harness alone.

 

[sykanr0ng]

This helps so much! Thank you! Is here a reason you went with a voltmeter? Since I am redoing this, would you recommend switching from amp to volt?

Thank you!

When you go from a 38 amp (or the high output 42 amp) stock alternator to an alternator putting out 130 amps or more the wiring to the ammeter/gauge cluster and the ammeter itself become the weakest links.

 

[ransil]

If your wiring is that bad its best to replace it, or you will be chasing issues for the next 10 years.

 

[Steve83]

The vague part of your initial post is what YEAR Bronco you're talking about. Put it in your profile & signature so you never have to remember again, and we don't have to scroll back looking for the info.

It's easy to check a wire's continuity & voltage drop to know if it's OK without replacing the entire harness (which is a LOT of work, and probably more-confusing). So until you have some specific need to change the harness, I wouldn't. I've done several, and I find it's always easier to keep the stock harness & modify it as needed.

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