All aftermarket goodies that include wiring as part of the installation should come with a box of Enzyte. Nothing is quite as confusing-or emasculating-as aimlessly trying to complete a wiring job. While you may have built a monster 600hp small-block with your own two hands, those same hands probably can't even manage to rig up some wimpy little wires. While it's quite possible that most people just flat-out suck at wiring, it's probably due more to lack of knowledge than lack of talent. Wiring gurus aren't easy to find, but we hunted down the crew at Painless Performance to get some valuable tips on maintaining a healthy electrical system. As a premiere source for aftermarket wiring harnesses and electrical accessories, the Painless crew turns thousands upon thousands of miles of wire each year into products hot rodders rely on every day. They also talk to buffoons like us from 9 to 5, so our questions were no match for their expertise. After meeting with Painless Vice President Dennis Overholser and talking with tech support reps Mike Burke and Dennis Diehl, here's what we learned.
Installing GaugesWhen wiring aftermarket gauges, it's critical to make sure they have a sufficient ground. Aluminum heads probably won't cut it. "It is best to have a central grounding terminal block to run all the gauges to," explains Dennis. "Also, make sure you have the negative battery cable going to the block, a ground strap going from the block to the frame, and another strap from the frame to the firewall." For accurate readings and consistent operation, sending-unit wires should be routed far away from relays, radio wires, and spark-plug wires because the sending-unit wires can pick up interference from these sources. "You don't want a signal wire that operates at a few hundred millivolts next to a spark-plug wire that operates at over 40,000 volts," adds Mike.