Power wire tapping
 

Hey all,
So I bought 3 new Defi Gauges and I can't wait to get them installed. :nod: I guess my question is that each gauge is going to require power. 12v I assume and I see that alot of people tap the ash tray light wires. How many times can you tap a power wire? Does the voltage go down each time you tap the wire or would it be a constant 12v spread. IDK this might be a stupid question because if I was to guess it would be a constant to all the wire taps. Anyways im just throwing that out there. I've done a fair share of research and cant find the answer.

I did see a thread in which someone recommended those cool jumpers with the flip out blade for wire taps. Those are kinda neat and I might go that route. Has anyone had good luck with those or does anyone use them?

Thanks and Peace off

A better way to attain power is to utilize some of the empty fuse locations down by your left foot. Tapping wires for power is definitely an option but its not a very good one.

the more load items you put on a circuit the more chance you take at overloading that circuit.

IMO, for people who want to have even just a few to very many accessories in the car i would run a new power wire from the battery with a fuse inline and run it into the cabin to a junction block. run all your 12v constant accessory feeds off the new block versus tapping into the already calculated amp fused circuits.

^^That is an even better way of doing it, especially if you want to have more easily accessible power later on as well. (its what I have done) Painless Wiring makes a GREAT kit for this exact thing. Its about $85 if I remember correctly.

Yeah thats a good idea. I think I like that and I will do it. Then I dont have to worry about choping wires and having extra wires run all over the fricken place. Thumbs up

for 12v power there is a spare connection point on the fuse box under the drivers side use a spade terminal and it goes right in. The tap off the ash tray light is for dimmable power for the gauge lighting.

^This.
12v switched power is circled below......I still recommend a fuse.

http://i1126.photobucket.com/albums/...ox002mediu.jpg

What fuse rating should I get? Also how many gauges are you running off that connection point?

That is the panel I was speaking of. There is also an empty fuse slot in there. I would think a 15amp would do it and you should be able to run all three off of that one tap. Those should not pull much power at all. Now the sensors should be powered differently with dedicated power and grounds to keep the other power signals from creating interference.

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/PRF-70217/ <-- Painless wiring fuse block. So easy to install.

During my battery relocation I utilized an added fuse block for this very reason. I purchased the block from summit & tied it in with my circuit breaker. It works very well. I simply used a channel for each gauge and had extra to spare. It worked great for any accessory or relay I wanted to have a switched power source for that was separate from the already overloaded ignition switch circuit.

As a note, I still used the ashtray light postive wire for the switched dimmer source of all 4 of my gauges. Because the voltage demand is so low to determine the dimmer, it did not overload it and worked perfectly.

My build thread in my sig will lead you to my setup & pics. But for my battery relocation and much of the idea, I used this write-up...

http://www.stanford.edu/~sunid/battery/

Damn! You did an exceptional job on that relocation. That looks really amazing. That must have been alot of work.

ok, one more question. What are you all doing for the ignition 12v wire? I'm kinda unsure where to tap on that one. Damn defi gauges sure have a lot of wire hook ups. power for the illum, battery, ignition and ground. lol sheesh