3 guage wire harness

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SPAIN72MUSTANG

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 9, 2011
Messages
376
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Location
chicago ridge,il
My Car
1972 mustang convertible
2008 ford edge
2006 cadillac cts
hello to everyone, does anyone know if the 3 guage wire harness mustang unlimted sells for the oil,temp,volts will work for the factory gauges, i took off another mustang,it says its for our mustangs but my car never came with gauges,so im wondering if it will just hook up to the dummy lights...................the ones mustang unlimited sell looks like it hooks up behind the gauges and the other end has a plug,so my question is will this work on my car that never came with factory gauges thanks..ron

 
hello to everyone, does anyone know if the 3 guage wire harness mustang unlimted sells for the oil,temp,volts will work for the factory gauges, i took off another mustang,it says its for our mustangs but my car never came with gauges,so im wondering if it will just hook up to the dummy lights...................the ones mustang unlimited sell looks like it hooks up behind the gauges and the other end has a plug,so my question is will this work on my car that never came with factory gauges thanks..ron
Hmmm. It's hard to decipher what you are saying here but the 3 gauge wire harness should plug into what ends up going to the instrument cluster and dummy lights. The sender units are set to only indicate with an extreme is reached so they turn red. If you add aftermarket gauges (not in the cluster) you'll need to run lines directly. If you swap instrument clusters then you'll need to hack up the plug that goes to the instrument cluster and change out your sender units.

 
A point of clarification: 3 gauge implies the size of the wire in diameter; I think what you are referring to is the three wire gauge harness.

That gauge harness simply routes the oil pressure, water temperature and coil signals to the respective places in the headlight harness, which in turn routes everything to the appropriate gauges or idiot lights. The only variation in the gauge harness is the length of wire runs. For example, the oil pressure may be located very differently on an inline 6 engine than a V8. Signal wise, they are identical.

 
what im saying is i have the 3 guage oil,temp,volts that belong in our cars,but my car did not come with that option i have the dummy lights,but mustang unlimted has a harness for it,so what i was asking do you think gauges will plug into the dummy lights,or will i have to run wires and splice them up to make them function. sorry for any confusion.hope someone out there has done this hook up.thanks ron

 
that harness is just for the engine sensors and plugs into the main harness after the firewall still in the engine bay, you have to have the correct harness to use it.

if i understand, you have an idiot lights car and want to convert to 3 gauges on the center dash.

that also means you want a tach usually... in this case you will need to run new wires and splices or swap out the dash harness from the engine bay and fuse box and dash frame. that is a big job and expensive. it is cheaper to run new wires for the new gauges.

there are other changes also, the oil and temp sensors have to be changed as the ohms reading is different between idiot lights and gauges.

for a tach you have to splice into the red/green wires in the ignition and go through the resistance wire out to the coil.

also the mylar circuit board that powers the main instruments is different from idiot lights to gauges.

 
Ahhh...I understand now. The three gauge center dash cluster. Yes, that requires significant modifications to the underdash harness, something that the typical owner will not be able to do. As 72HCode says, that usually means a change from a standard non-tach dash to a tach dash, but I have seen a non-tach dash with the three gauge cluster. The wiring harness for the center 3 gauge cluster needs to mate with the right connector on the underdash harness and that is not found on the underdash harness unless you have a tach dash or the very rare non-tach dash with three gauge cluster harness.

I can convert a non-tach underdash harness to tach dash configuration that provides you that plug or I can also build up the non-tach harness to accept the three gauge cluster harness. You'll also need to change a couple sending units under the engine.

Sorry about my confusion about 3 gauge wire sizes, the 3 wire gauge harness and the 3 gauge cluster harness. Each term has very specific meanings, all different.

 
thanks for everyones responses,i will go the cheep route and put after market gauges in.

 
thanks for everyones responses,i will go the cheep route and put after market gauges in.
That's what I'm doing Ron and so far it is coming out just fine. Not exactly "cheap" because I did buy good quality dash panel and gauges. It probably won't sit well with those who like to keep everything original but if that isn't a concern, and if you do it carefully, putting aftermarket gauges in the center dash panel will look just fine. The way I did it requires a little work on the dash panel with a dremel tool and sanding drum bit. The holes in the panel are not perfectly round so I had to grind them out a bit to accommodate the 2" gauges. I have to admit I cringed just a bit as I started grinding out the first hole. It was a brand new panel I bought from OMS and could have been a costly experiment. But ... it worked perfectly ! As soon as I purchase a quality stereo, I'll be taking the old panel out and installing this one.

 
thanks for everyones responses,i will go the cheep route and put after market gauges in.
That's what I'm doing Ron and so far it is coming out just fine. Not exactly "cheap" because I did buy good quality dash panel and gauges. It probably won't sit well with those who like to keep everything original but if that isn't a concern, and if you do it carefully, putting aftermarket gauges in the center dash panel will look just fine. The way I did it requires a little work on the dash panel with a dremel tool and sanding drum bit. The holes in the panel are not perfectly round so I had to grind them out a bit to accommodate the 2" gauges. I have to admit I cringed just a bit as I started grinding out the first hole. It was a brand new panel I bought from OMS and could have been a costly experiment. But ... it worked perfectly ! As soon as I purchase a quality stereo, I'll be taking the old panel out and installing this one.
i'm absolutely loving this! but i'll be putting those 3 guages in a combination guage with one of the 5 inches in the main cluster next to the MPH. i like the RPM mounted on the cage at the same level as the cash so i can see down the track and still have my eyes at the same level out the window and the rpm guage.

in those three holes, i want to put a AFR guage, trans temp guage, and vacuum.

 
phagan63 thanks for the info and pictures,im going to go the same route as you and nice job on the gauges.

 
phagan63 thanks for the info and pictures,im going to go the same route as you and nice job on the gauges.
Thanks Ron. You may have noticed just a little bit of discoloration around the top and bottom edges of the holes in the panel where the gauges seat into them. That might be able to be avoided in the future with a steadier hand than my own :-/ . I had to remove the remaining part of the small chrome ring that borders the hole so the gauge would seat flat against it. I'm sure a little touch-up with satin black paint will remedy that little blemish. I also used a 2" o-ring (not pictured) around each gauge to clean up the install a little more and reduce any squeaking from vibration.

Looking forward to seeing how your install goes.

Pat

 
yes its on my list to do ,they car is put away for winter so i will be saveing money buying the things i need,then installing them in march when the chicago winter is over,envey you guys with good weather year around

 
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