i am planning on doing this and i dont know much about electrical. i need someone to answer some questions for me or point me to a write-up. will i need a whole new wiring harness or can i use my stock one? can i use my stock sending units or the ones that come with the gauges? What do i need to do?!?!? HELLLPPPP MMMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! please. thanks



- jake

I replaced every gauge in the dash of my '87 YJ with VDO gauges when I swapped in the Ramjet 350... I don't know about Autometers, but I reckon they're quite similar.

I couldn't find a writeup either.

I can say this: If you're squeamish about digging in to your dash wiring or have very little experience with such things, you may wanna reconsider. I worked my way through college as a diesel technician and a car stereo installer, so I thought it was a piece o' cake but there are LOTS of ways to screw up a wiring job this complex. If you're not handy with a multimeter and/or you don't have some experience at performing properly crimped and insulated wire connections and making good, dependable splices, you could end up with buggy flickering gauges and lighting (at best) and a fire at the worst. Make sure you use insulated spade connectors (or whatever connectors are on the Autometer gauges) because the the gauges get pretty tight to the sheetmetal and could easily short to it if you don't protect them.

If I haven't scared you off yet:

The original stock gauges in the center dash area are mounted in a pod that has to be replaced en masse. This pod has a rinky dink plastic sheet on the back of it with traces that distributes power, ground, and signal to every light and gauge in the pod. Determining which wire from the harness does what is a simple matter of checking the plug leads from the harness with a multimeter and determining which one goes to whichever gauge/light/ground/whatever in the pod by following the traces to their sources and marking which color wire does what on a sheet of paper.

In order to physically mount the gauges, you'll need to mount a piece of plastic to the back of each piece of dash trim that holds the gauge with some sort of glue or other adhesive (I used hot glue). The pieces of plastic will need round holes in the correct locations for the gauges too, of course. I used some plexiglass from the local hardware store and painted the back with black spray paint (so the front would stay glossy and scuff-free). There's a pic of how mine turned out at the bottom of this post. You'll need 1-1/8 diameter small gauges and 3-1/8" diameter large gauges (NOT 3-3/8"! they're too big!)

Hope this helps,
Jake

Did you use a stock YJ tank & sender with the motor swap? Does VDO make a compatible fuel gauge to the stock sender?

Going with a flat dash in my '95 when I get some down time...

-Matt

jake- i will be going will a flat stainless dash, so mounting is not an issue- just the wiring. i have confidence in my ability, i just dont have experience. i think if i got ahold of some good directions and some good connecting supplies, i would be okay. i just need to figure out if they will be compatable with my YJ's computer and all that. i guess what i need to do is call autometer. im looking at the ultra-lite series if anyone was curious. thanks!


- jake