OK, You know what your doing. You don't need a long explanation. Just a test light. Maybe a DVM.
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One Warning. A poor broken ground connection or hooking up the plugs incorrectly can quickly burn up the gauges or sensors. Don't make matters worse. Double check your connections before turning your ignition key to 'ON'
Add a ground wire from the dash to the (-) negative terminal of the battery to be sure.
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Step 1. Start Here
Turn key to ON. Attach your test light clip lead to a good ground.
You may want to disconnect your Ignition coil. These have been known to burn up if the key is 'ON' but the engine is not running.
My problem is with the voltmeter (1986 CJ7 factory guage). Needle doesn’t move—I put known 12 bolts across it and it still doesn’t, so I know the guage is bad.
What I can’t figure out is, with my multimeter red pin on the yellow wire and the black pin on a good ground, it reads bogus number-like 150. That’s with the key on. With the multimeter across the battery it reads about 13 not running, and in the 14’s running.
Shouldn’t it read the same under the dash, minus a small drop?
that's a good possibility. Will recheck tomorrow! All I did to check the ground was to use a test light with a 12 volt source. It was a good enough ground to light it, but may just barely be good.
I have not checked the oil pressure hot wire-I'll check that.
I did pull the connector to/from the ignition switch (on top of the column). There should be continuity from the heavy guage yellow wire (that goes from the ignition switch to the fusebox) to the yellow wire at the voltmeter. There is not.
According to the diagram, they connect in the harness between the ignition switch and the fusebox. The harness is unmolested, so I didn't imagine any corruption of the connection of those two wires. before I unwrap that area to check, Ill make a last-ditch effort to check the terminal at the meter end to see if contact is broken there.
If you have a test light or meter probes with a sharp point, you could push the probe directly through the insulation to see if there is power just a few inches away.
Cover up the puncture with tape to keep ant moisture entering at the puncture point.
I punctured the insulation near the end of the yellow voltmeter wire-no joy.
There is, however, continuity from the big yellow wire to the yellow wire that is the unused 4cyl tachometer connector (yellow circle). Rather than unwrap the whole underdash harness, I'm thinking I'll splice into that with a new lead to the voltmeter. Do you see any downside to that?
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