jeffrored92

Hey everyone hope your chrissy's were good and all

Halfway through a gauge installation, stalling at the last hurdle (getting wires into the cabin)

I'm planning on going through the drivers fender (I'm a RHD car in Australia) but from what I read it seems like the RHD is almost an exact swap of the LHD (ie: we have a fuse box behind the drivers side kickpanel and ECU on the passener side.

The other day I had the fender liner partly off (tyre on) and was able to pull the wires through under the cruise control unit into the inner fender, but trying to poke through any of the grommets into the cabin didn't seem to work. Should I be removing the fuse box to get easier access to the grommets from the inside of the cabin, or is that not necessary? I'm a bit reluctant to do that for fear I f&%k something up!!!!! It would be nicer to just poke the wires through without removing the fuse box, but I spent close to an hour trying to get through the other day with no luck. I can't see anyone posting that I should be removing the fuse box so I assume most of you that have done gauge installs this way didn't need to?

Remind me when I build my next car to build in a special grommet and label it with a "GAUGE WIRES THROUGH HERE" sign.

KINETIK_FD3S

rhd and lhd are the same, it would probably be easier if you poke it through the steering grommet, since i have no ac i just ran the wires through there, if i remember correctly there is a really big plug on the side of the fuse box but to get the wires through you would need to take off the fender well. ill look for some of my old pics

jeffrored92

Yah I've already moved the fender liner it's really easy to get off. Well I didn't remove it, just undid half the fastenerers (metal and plastic) and pulled it aside to get in there. I don't really want to go through the steering column grommet, I've got a boost gauge tube, temp gauge wires and fan mod wire to pull through, it's quite a packet all together.

I managed to get in and poke my coat hanger through the grommets inside the fender to get into the cabin by the fuse box. The problem was I didn't want to push too far through the grommets in case I took out something important inside, and I can't even see or feel the grommets from inside because there is just TOO much stuff cluttered down there. I imagine it would be easier if I just removed the fuse box, but I don't want to do that. I need to know if any of the other dudes had to do that

KINETIK_FD3S

the pic is to large to upload, about the plug on the side of the fuse box j-spec (exept late models) rx-7 have it and a-spec rx-7's have the air bag wiring going through there.

jeffrored92

Hmmmmmm well with the fender liner pulled back I can see at least two grommets. One is right near the hole into the engine bay and kind of faces towards the rear of the car. That one is easy to get to from the wheel well. The other is further down the side of the car, facing inwards to the centre of the car. PITA to get to. Both have stuff running through them, and I do have an airbag system. Poking through both I didn't get anywhere. Probably got the coathanger in about an inch before it stopped and didn't want to push any further. Couldnt see or feel the grommets or coat hanger from inside the cabin.

Blasted bed time for me now , damn sleep getting in the way of working on the car!!!! Will be working in the morning so any info people might feel like posting while I'm asleep will be MUCH appreciated!

95R2-89TII Ground Zero

The easiest and quickest way is to go through the steering column gromet.

alberto_mg

i was never able to get anything through there either. tighter than a nun. not that i know, but...

i squeezed the wires for my boost controller and gauge though some little hole near the master cylinder.

iluvmy3rdgen

Just drill a hole a put a grommet in the hole. An electricians bit should do you go.

Drill slow, and put tape about 3/4 of an inch from the tip of the bit so you don't accidently pierce anything.

jagwrjack

iTrader: (3)

I found a way in through the big grommet near the top door hinge.

You'll see it with the fender liner pulled away.

jimlab

Cutting and running wires through the steering shaft boot or drilling holes in the firewall is not the best way to get wires through to the cabin. You're on the right path, running wires out through the openings at either side of the rear of the engine bay, beneath the fender liner. Then you don't end up with leaks or any other problems.

On U.S. cars, there are three rubber "grommets" behind the fender liner on the driver's side and two on the passenger's. I assume that they're reversed for right-drive cars.

Driver's side:
1. Large (facing front of car) - front wiring harness
2. Medium (facing front of car, above large) - can't remember... it's got a 2-gauge power cable running through it now.
3. Small (facing side of car, behind fender) - SRS (air bag) sensor wiring

Passenger's side:
1. Large (facing front of car) - front wiring harness
2. Small (facing side of car, behind fender) - SRS (air bag) sensor wiring

It would be easiest to run the wires after removing the fuse box, but I can tell you from experience that it is a major pain in the ***. You have to remove the 10mm nut at the bottom of the box (see picture below), and then release the clip at the top, which isn't intuitive or easy. Once you've got the fuse box loose, there are only a couple plugs to remove on the front. Everything else is on the rear and they don't unsnap easily (you have to depress the snap locks blind in some cases before they'll release), and to make matters worse, the wiring harness doesn't have a lot of slack in it, so there's not a lot of room to get your hands in and you can't really turn the fuse box around. Be prepared for very sore fingers.

The good news is that you don't have to remove the fuse box to get wires into the interior. I had to remove my front wiring harness to paint the engine bay twice, so I had to unplug everything from the fuse box twice.

It just takes a little more time and effort, but you can leave the fuse box where it is. In the picture below, you can see my 2-gauge power cable running behind the fuse box (in the black wire loom). I also have a bundle of 6 extra wires for gauges (or whatever) running through the same grommet (#2 on driver's side above).

If you have a larger number of wires and a vacuum hose to run, the largest grommet is probably the easiest to deal with. Pop it loose and pull it out as far as you can. You should be able to remove enough electrical tape to free the boot so that you can run your wires/hoses through it without cutting, but if you can't, you can cut it and just tape it well.

The easiest way to get the wire into the interior once it's through the boot (before you reinstall the grommet) is to tape all the ends together so that everything heads in the same direction. It's not easy to see, but there is space behind and above the fuse box, and if you run enough wire through, you'll eventually see it come out somewhere where you can grab it. Then just route it where you want, take up the slack, and reinstall the grommet.

Hope that helps. I still have access to the inside of my car, so I can get a few more pictures if necessary.

jeffrored92

No more pics necessary champ - you have given me hope that I can do it this way

Fantastic, today I'll do it properly and take off the tyre and entire liner so I can get in there easily.

jeffrored92

Thanks heaps guys, nailed it this afternoon. Took some bloody time though! Took the car for a spin and both temp and boost gauges are working. Couldn't boost too much coz there was too much traffic about.

I got between 16 & 18 inches Hg vacuum at idle, and the car didn't get over 195F during my run up to the shops and back, in 80F sunny weather.

My gauge lights work (and dim nicely, thanks ashtray) but the stupid illuminated push button switch I've used to manually switch on the radiator fans doesn't illuminate!!!! (But it does turn the fans on so I'm happy with that).

For anyone who is interested or finds this thread when searching later, I put my temp sender into the throttle body coolant line, and my boost gauge vac tube onto a spare nipple of the UIM. The biggest pain of this job was threading the cables through the fender!

7racer

This is a old bump from 04

I just need to run one wire into the car from the engine bay. When you say the medium opening I assume you mean the one that is located BELOW the large harness and not above.

Correct?

BTW, this is alot easier way of getting access through the firewall.

jeffrored92

I went through on the other side, because I'm RHD. I had something like 3 or 4 wires and a vacuum hose, which I taped together. I used a coathanger to punch a hole in the large grommet facing the front of the car (the one that Jimlab said is for the front wiring harness) being VERY careful not to force anything. Then I taped my bundle of stuff to the coathanger and fed it through the grommet, till I could grab it from behind the fuse box and pull it through the rest of the way.

Hope that helps