Gauges again

I have four main things to finish on the car:

1. Get the full charge on the batteries. This first requires that I get them balanced.
2. Install the instruments
3. Fix the clutch (new on the list since yesterday)
   
4. Attach the hood and prop rod (this one should be easy)

While I was charging batteries I set out to tackle the instruments.
Last week I took a template of the plastic piece I needed to cover the original gauges that I was keeping (tach, speedo and idiot lights) the temp, fuel and oil pressure gauges were replaced an ammeter, State of Charge meter and a temperature gauge for the Zilla. And yes, I could have reused the old temperature gauge, but I think it would have looked funny.

At any rate, The plastic cover fit pretty well it just needed a few adjustments with the Dremel. I hooked up light kit and fed the wires through some holes I cut in the sides and crimped on some connectors. The lights had to be connected to the one in the instrument cluster so that the dimmer would work right. I traced out the wires and soldered a pair of flywires to the circuit board for these. These are the two black wires running across the back of the cluster in the picture. So far so good.

I had fed the wires through the firewall and up to the where the cluster goes earlier, Now I just needed to crimp connectors on them. Here's a tip: make the connectors all the same just in case you mess up the wiring. I made all the instrument connectors female and all the wire side male. And, I thought the blue went to the SOC meter, when it went to the Ammeter... Works out nice when you plan to make mistakes. ; )

Once I got them in, the SOC meter started working, but nothing on the ammeter. I tried reversing the polarity but still nothing. The temp gauge didn't move, but the Zilla was still cool to the touch after a couple of drives, so maybe it was okay.
Next I tried the lights and, the temp gauge went up when the lights went on. Hmmmm, must have the ground or the positive leads wrong. When I turned the key on with lights lit, the temp gauge bottoms out like the polarity is wrong.

So, of the 5 gauges...

• The tach doesn't work, but it lights up
• the SOC works, but the light is too close to the face and lights a corner of it up
• the speedo works and lights up fine
  
• the ammeter doesn't work, but lights up
• the temp gauge is mis-wired, but it lights

So, the cluster needs to come out for a little reworking...

I had a nice visit with a fellow Miata converter. He is using an ADC with a Curtis and 15 8 volt batteries. Funny thing is, he lives about a mile from me. What I thought was really interesting is that he took his gas tank out from the top - he cut away the sheet metal with a sawzall and lifted it out. Pretty cool. I'm going to try to go look at his car later.