Early instrument wiring question, Fuel gauge wiring Options

[roundtwo]

Hello. Pulling my instrument panel out for refurbishing. 1. I see that there is a missing bulb or something that goes into this female connector On the early model fuel gauge. anyone know what that part is and where I could find it? See yellow highlight.

2. Red wire. This must be a power wire as it continues down to other gauges with multiple connections. I think seven in all. See the second picture. What’s odd is what I open up the dash the connector highlighted wasn’t connected to anything. You would think it would need to power the item in number one above but if it was connected to that it wouldn’t of reached to all the other connectors on the other gauges. Could there be a jumper wire from that red female terminator to the location in picture one?

Thanks. Todd

[FlacaProductions]

Does this help? I know early and later are a little different.
does your gauge just have the red field at the top of it or does it have a temp gauge?

Note that the diagram shows the gauges upside down.

[JeffBowlsby]

"early" means nothing. What year is your 914...Can we assume its stock?

[roundtwo]

I was saying it was an early gauge in the sense that the gauge has the silver centers vs the black centers / black at the needle attachment point on the tach. I assumed that was form a later model.

See picture.
Thanks for the diagram with the spreadsheet. That’s fantastic it’s just not quite right for my gauge. It does give me a clue as to what the probable wiring is though.

I took the picture of the back upside down for ease of comparing it to the picture of the gauge you posted in the same position

[roundtwo]

Having a hard time attaching photos

[roundtwo]

1970

[FlacaProductions]

is your BRAKE label on the bottom of the half-moon on the front off-center toward the left? could you have two different warnings being indicated in that space - brake on the left and ??? on the right?

usually that brake symbol is (more) centered.

under the top edge of that gauge - part number: 914 641 102 50 ?

Bruce - early does mean something, no? Silver dot vs. non. In this case, an early/silver dot fuel gauge has separate spades for + and - where the later connections are part of a black, plastic unit....i guess + is + and - is - but....they're a bit different.

[Jonathan Livesay]

Did the early gauge have separate bulbs for handbrake switch and brake warning light from the master cylinder?

[roundtwo]

Hey Brian. I don’t know the answer that question. I’ve never had the car running. It’s a 1970 I pulled out of the garage in Oakland California about six months ago. What is stored for 25 years and now I’m going through the instrument panel.

I’m assuming what’s missing had two terminals. I imagine the red with white wire needs to power one of those terminals but the lead is too short. One of the terminals on the red and white wire was unplugged from anything yet all the other gauges were completely wired in series from it. That red wire comes Out of the main harness. It first plugs into the back of the multi gauge then continues Daisy chained to the tach and speedometer.

[timothy_nd28]

You should put a lamp in that unused light port, and wire it to flash when you hit 88mph

[roundtwo]

[roundtwo]

That 88 mph will definitely be on a steep downhill at this point

[904svo]

shine a flashlight in the lamp holder and see what lights up that should tell you what the holder is for.

[timothy_nd28]

If you shine a light inside that unused lamp holder, the other side of the brake indicator lamp will illuminate.


My belief is that the double brown wire with yellow stripe could be separated. So one side of the indicator would illuminate for parking brake, and the other side would illuminate for MC failure. I don't think it ever came to fruition from the factory.

[timothy_nd28]

Actually what would be pretty cool, if you replace the right side with a blue lens. Then wire each lamp to a small circuit that alternates each lamp back and forth, and finally have it triggered by a radar detector (IMG:style_emoticons/default/idea.gif)
Wish I thought of this when I was driving as a teenager!

[roundtwo]

Hey Timothy,
Good idea with shining the light through the two holes in the rear of the gauge. It looks like both are for illumination. The one that had the missing lead and obviously I know now it needs the bulb and then the one right next to it. Both are designated for lights.

Now I just have to track down one missing light socket.

I still haven’t figured out the wire however meanwhile I just picked up another 1970. I’ll open up the instrument panel and take a peek at the wiring. How convenient !!!!

Now I can totally justify buying a third 1970 914 (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[FlacaProductions]

Is the red field split or one big section?

[timothy_nd28]

Definitely split, I have a few of these laying around the shop, I'll attach a picture later

[FlacaProductions]

Interesting - never seen it split.

[JeffBowlsby]

The issue with the term 'early' is that ther were three silver dot gauges. Maybe there was some wiring differences? The chassis harnesses which include the dash gauge wiring were also different for these 'early' years.

The sketch diagram is for a 1974 gauge...so may not be correct for any other model year.

See here: http://www.p914.org/p914_gauges_fuel-comp_early.htm