Where to get 10A's when engine running?

**Acidburn** · 27 July 2007, 22:33

Originally posted by Anagonda

but the wires are so thin. If I take 10A from those I will burn the hole car?

I presume you mean if that you put a 10amp fuse in between then you would? I thought that the fuse was there to protect whatever you was running and the fuse would "die" before the wiring?

If it was me and I wanted a quick power supply to a guage i'd use the aux wire for the stereo and put a fuse in that. Its switchable for the ignition and IIRC is good enough to power that without burning as long as you don't try running too much and not fusing it.

**dubmeister** · 27 July 2007, 22:56

For the boost gauge all you will need is an electrical connection for the bulb. this can be taken off any circuit that has a light source when the vehicles lights are operated- the best on would be from your original auxiluary gauges. The lambda reader would just need an ignition live (+), with a 10 amp in line fuse, radio ignition live is good or find a spare terminal on your fuse box that gives 12v when the engine is running- there are a few that give 12v when the ignition is on but dissapear once the engine is started. It would also need a good earth(-) connection as a poor earth can damage the gauge. This might give you a better idea

http://neptune.spacebears.com/cars/stories/scagauge.html

**Acidburn** · 27 July 2007, 23:11

I found out about the bad earth connection with my 20v quattro sport, my a/f ratio guage was first wired up to the (-) earth for the radio just to test the guage and see if the other connections worked. The guage used to pulse with the bass tracks in the music if you held the throttle at a specific point. It also used to go off the scale when WOT was used. Was quite funny but annoyed me as I was never sure if it read correctly.

**Anagonda** · 28 July 2007, 21:36

I might know a bit of electric things, but the car is too small for me to look around. Thats why I'm asking.

I know that the fuse is more than the gauge is needing, but I need to have atleast so thick wire that it won't burn before to fuse burns. And the middle console light wires are so small that I think I will burn the wire before fuse. That will cause "burn my car" -thing...

And what the hell will I do with just the boost gauge lights? Ofcourse I need the power to run the lambda gauge and lambda heater... One way is ofcourse to use the radios "ignition" power and add a relay that will power the gauges. But if it's possilbe I don't wan't to add more relays to the electric hell that "new" cars have. The "ignition"-power to radio is too thin wire to draw 10A's from, it will melt I know!
So where can I find 12v when the engine is running? Some relay or some where from the fusebox? I will draw my own "thick enought" wires to the gauges. The only problem is where to start...
If I just had a schematic for the car...

**Acidburn** · 29 July 2007, 12:18

What about one of the connections on the back of the ignition barrel. Sure one of them would be "live" when running and you could add your own thickness cable.

**Anagonda** · 29 July 2007, 15:42

Yes, but witch one? It's hard to find out without battery or engine. And I don't have any schematics either

**Acidburn** · 29 July 2007, 17:08

Originally posted by Anagonda

Yes, but witch one? It's hard to find out without battery or engine. And I don't have any schematics either

Ah ok, take it your rebuilding your car, sure someone on here would know about it i'm not sure myself as I have not done nothing with the ignition barrel.

If it was me and I could I'd get a battery on the car then use a 12v tester on the back of the ignition and see which stayed live with the ignition "on" so to speak. You could try have a look at the back and see if you could see which was which.

Where to get 10A's when engine running?

Where to get 10A's when engine running?

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