Just curious if anyone out there is familiar with some of the wiring on the back of the gauge cluster. I recently reinstalled a good odometer (thanks Hullie) into my '73s cluster, but I believe I hooked the amp gauge wires up backwards. I recently noticed on another bad cluster I had lying around for parts that the BW (black w/white stripe) wire is hooked to positive (+) and the WR (white w/red stripe) is hooked to negative (-). I put mine the other way, which seemed right to me at the time but apparently it's not. Can anyone confirm? I've checked my '2 manuals but can't find any references to this, maybe I'm looking at it wrong though. Seems like they should go the other way, but what do I know.

I've attached a small pic to show what I'm talking about.

Thanks,
Mike

 

Hey Mike,
for what its worth....I always thought Red was Hot & Black was Cold.But what the hell do i know!

 

Yeah, that's what I assumed also.. but you know what they say about assuming. Heh, anyhow I finally figured it out. I examined one of my wiring diagrams with an electron microscope and found that the BW wire does indeed go to positive. I also verified it with a voltmeter and the BW has +12v when disconnected and the WR had nothing. So the cluster in my photo was correct after all.

Mike

 

those wires are for the amp meter which measures flow
if they are not right when the alt is charging it would show a discharge and
when its discharging it would show it charging.
if you disconnect the wires the car will have no power to anything
i know of this the hard way, when one of the wires broke off i was stranded.

matt

 

Yup.. I remember ages ago in my '71 RX-2 my amp gauge burnt out and I had to jump those 2 wires together in order to start the car.

Mike

 

See, just like I told ya!! What the Hell do I Know!