heres a weird one. yesterday we installed a new antenia, nice c/d and modified kick panels with blaupunct(?) speakers. sounds great. we used a real nice under dash radio holder (padded marine unit that matches very nicely to dash pad), built a h/d bracket hanger so not to damage the lower dash pad. all wiring was done properly with inline fuse, crimp connections and then taped over. the radio was tested then slid into the d.i.n. houseing. as it was slid in the radio would cut on/off, (no blown fuse). after scatching our heads we found the face plate, when wiggled, lost contact (face plate to radio). i thought it might have been the wiring plug into the back of the radio but went on when we found the face plate issue. we finished installing then tested the radio, worked great

heres what happened

this morning kenny took it out for a quick ride, when put in reverse or stepping on the brakes the tach and gas gauge drop to zero. i swear these 914 have more sensitive wiring than any british car i've seen! it seems these weird wiring issues always involve the dash somehow. i've had a incorrect tail light bulb effect the tach this way and have recently read several similar post.

i haven't yet pulled the fuse to isolate the stereo, but i'm hoping that will isolate it down to the radio install, as it was fine before this. i guess i'll go from there.

any insights or thoughts?

i do want to check the ground and may run a dedicated power source straight from the battery.

mike

Your main ground up next to the fuse panel.
The radio should have its own dedicated ground.
Clean all your fuses also.

Rich

it's a dedicated ground on the dash frame (maybe it has excessive resistance, i didn't check voltage drop)
the power was tied into a constant hot source and a new 10 amp. fuse was put inline at the source.

i think i'm going run a fat + & - wire straight to the battery. i have a large 40 amp. spade set up for the battery side, heavy gauge wire to run into the cab and a 5 spade type fuse block to install at the dash. that way i'm not linked into ANY other curcuits and will have 4 futures. funky electricity seems to do weird stuff to 914 curcuits. like some of those threads we've been seeing lately.

mike

Chances are good that you popped the #8 or #9 fuse. They can look OK but be popped; remove them (one at a time!) to inspect; blown ones will be obvious once the holder isn't keeping them together.

--DD

thanks, i'll check but why would this cause the tack and fuel gauge to die only when the brake or e-brake is applied? what does #8 & 9 control?

mike

Ditto on daves reply. I know it sounds weird, but I've cured this problem in 3 914's so far.

It has been dirty fuses and contacts in the lights. One time was the rear/brake light another was front turn signals. The last was dirty fuses.

Good luck

As a past and current owner of several British car's, I take offense at the comparison of your wiring problem to that of a British car's. HAH! Did you have smoke rolling out from the dash? Melted wires? Sudden loss of lights at highway speed?
Your stereo issue doesn't even register on the Lucas scale of pain and I'm glad you got it fixed.

Tom

If the tach drops to zero when you step on the brake it is one of the fuses, 8 or 9. If you look at a wiring diagram you can see that if the fuse is blown stepping on the brake shorts the tach. It sound goofy, but it is definite. If you are in doubt, watch the brake lights when this happens, you won't have any!!

Sounds like a good excuse to get the Engman "modern" fuse panel. Got mine from the group buy, installed it yesterday. Looks & works great.

WOW, the same thing happened to me on Saturday. I took out my taillights to put some silicone around them to stop a trunk leak and when I went to take it out for a drive, my brake lights, turn signals, volt meter, tach, gas light & needle were all malfunctioning. I checked the fuse panel and 9 & 11 were blown, also checked the seal
on the taillights and noticed that one of the connections had come looks and may have shorted out fuse 11(?) , well off to the parts store to get some new ones...

This used to happen to me all the time. I believe 8 and 9 are tail lights, horn and wipers... Spin the fuses and/or clean their contacts.. should fix it .

hey, haven't seen you on the site for awhile. still in school? is your 914 still on the road? come down sometime and do a foothill drive again with kenny, we are still breaking in the motor , but is next to 100%

mike

oh yeah, you guys are amazing, the brake lights don't work... maybe get to the hard repair of changing the fuses soon (if i can find them)

thanks all, mike

Yeah still in school.

Haven't driven the 914 in over a year now, sure miss it. Right now it sits in the backyard until I get the money/enthusiasm to tinker again... I'd like to come check out that motor sometime.