yes, sir it is, his thread
Painless Performance wiring harness - Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums

 

That diagram shows the colors of the wires instead of the circuits those wires represent. E.g: which wires is temp sender gauge which is for oil pressure, etc.



Edit: to clarify what I'm trying to do

 

Just a heads up on my experience. I swapped a 94 tach cluster into my 94. Switched out speedometer cluster to get the correct mileage in my tach cluster. Upon install discovered I had accidentally knocked the cluster face sideways on my alternator gauge, resulting in the needle hanging up and giving a bad reading. If you swap out the gauges, take the extra time to make sure the faces are lined up correctly. A little scotch tape on top and bottom will hold the faces on and not show once the cover is put back on.

 

Maybe this will help some:




/

 

Thanks!! That got me almost all the way done. I have a couple clarifying questions though... (pictures for reference)

regarding pins #2, #10, & #12 on Painless gauge cluster plug, where do I connect these? Please correct if wrong but for the ammeter gauge to work I connect Painless pin# 12 to pin# B14 on Ford gauge cluster / connect Painless pin# 10 to Ford pin# B13.

Is that correct? Where do I connect Painless pin# 2?


Thanks so much for all y'alls help!



^Sourced from: 1983 Ford Bronco '87-96 Instruments, Low Fuel Light, Oil Pressure picture | SuperMotors.net



^diagram from Painless harness



^^Painless harness gauge cluster plug pinout (sorry for handwriting)



^progress so far

 

If I'm reading your diagram correctly, the #10 and #12 wires are for the alternator and only count here if you have an ammeter. If you have a voltmeter then they stay under the hood only.
And speaking of alternators, do you have a 2G stock alternator, or some kind of upgrade?

Doesn't the '88 use a voltmeter instead of an ammeter? If so you don't need to do anything fancy and don't worry about the Painless diagram since in '77 they did in fact use an ammeter.
But even then, their diagram appears wrong for a Ford gauge. We did not have "pass-through" (or "direct-reading") ammeters by then. They were "shunted" instead.
For a voltmeter you only need to supply battery voltage with the key. Usually from the input side of the IVR on the back of the cluster.

If yours does have an ammeter, let me know and I'll try to run that down as well. In the pic above (the one of yours) you can see where B13 and B14 pass through a resistor in a socket similar to the light bulbs.
This is the bypass resistor so that if the bulb ever blows out your alternator will still charge. One end of the #2 wire (is it Green by any chance?) goes to B14 and supplies 12v from the ignition switch. From there the wire you connect to B13 goes out to your voltage regulator under the hood. Are you using a stock alternator? Presumably a 2G for '88, but could have been swapped out (and maybe should be?) but there is still the usual Green w/red exciter wire I think. Only played with 2G's minimally, so not sure.

Paul

 

Ohh, ok I see Ive misunderstood some things now... my gauge cluster does have a battery voltage meter as opposed to an ammeter, my mistake... you say to have the voltmeter function I supply power to the input side of the IVR on the back of the cluster-- what does this mean? (sorry, 12v illiterate)

Because I have a voltmeter and not ammeter, you say #10 & #12 stay under the hood... does this mean I dont have to worry about plugging them in anywhere? Do I need to wire them together?

The #2 wire from my Painless plug is black w/ green stripe (I think, I'll pull the cluster back out and double check). To confirm, this wire plugs onto pin B14 on the Ford side?


Sorry for the confusion still, wiring is not my forte by any means. I am trying to learn as much as possible through this process tho! Thanks for all your help!!



EDIT: I confirmed the other end of the alternator regulator exciter does pop out at the voltage regulator. I will attach [Painless pin #2 --> Ford pin #B14]. I noticed though that Painless pin #2 & #7 ( constant 12v) are bridged... should I break the bridge and just run pin #7 split out to the two Ford plug 12v inputs? Why would pins 2 & 7 be bridged?


Had to peel back the shrink wrap to see if they were bridged..


Still confused as to what if anything to wire to Ford pin #B13.

Thanks!

 

The "IVR" stands for Instrument Voltage Regulator to differentiate it from the alternator's voltage regulator. Used to be called a Constant Voltage Supply (misleading, but useful) or one other name I can't think of right now. But it's a regulator that is inline with the power supply to the cluster.

The B13 and B14 are one single circuit with a lamp in the middle. It's your BAT (or perhaps ALT?) light on the dash that comes on when you turn the key ON and goes out when the alternator starts charging with the engine running.
This wire (Light Green w/red tracer) is the exciter wire for the alternator voltage regulator. Without it your charging system cannot work. The added resistor is there as a secondary path. It has slightly more resistance than the light bulb filament, so normally when everything is working all the power goes through the light bulb. It's literally where that whole "path of least resistance" phrase comes from.
If the light bulb burns out, the 12v will pass through the resistor and keep your alternator charging. Otherwise you'd lose your charging for a burned out light bulb. It's a safety feature.

So you need 12v coming in to that circuit B14 probably from a wire that is hot when the key is in the ON position only. I saw somewhere that there is a Black w/green wire used for that. But normally a Ford's Black w/green wire is hot in ACC too, so double check which power source you're using.
The B13 wire runs to the alternator regulator plug where the Light Green w/red wire attaches.
If you show us a picture of your alternator and it's connections we can probably list which wire goes where.

Basically though, B13 and 14 are just one circuit from the ignition switch to turn on the alternator, with a light bulb in the middle to tell you if it's working, or not.

Paul

 

Paul,
Does it in any way matter that the 12v constant wire and the alternator exciter wire were bridged already? Do I need to separate them and just let the gauge cluster (i.e. the lightbulb and resistor) handle it on their own or should I leave the additional bridge in place?
Additionally, if I also wire the 12v constant painless pin to the Ford pin B14, that makes 3x hot wires coming off the one Painless hot wire... is this ok? thats not going to put too much strain on the system is it?

[Painless 12v constant pin --> Ford plug "A"
--> Ford plug "B"
--> Ford pin B14]


On a separate note... as it is, I have 4 ground wires (2x wires from each Ford plug) terminating into 1 ground pin pin on the Painless harness. Should I take say two of those grounds off the Painless harness and ground them directly to the metal surrounding the gauge cluster?

[Painless gauge cluster plug ground: --> Ford pin A3
--> Ford pin A7
--> Ford pin B2
--> Ford pin B10]


Thanks again,
-Rob

 

When you say bridged, do you mean connected together? Is that in the diagram somewhere? Is it with the original harness, or the new Painless one? And where are they connected?
As far as I know, YES it does make a difference. The whole point of the constant hot Yellow wire is so that the regulator can sample the battery charge level and instruct the alternator how much charge it needs to produce.
The whole point of the switched 12v wire with the lamp is so that there is a way to tell the driver that the system is, or is not working properly, AND to be able to shut off power to the alternator.
With power applied to the switched wire the alternator would drain the battery in very short order.

Basically at any point in ANY wiring system there is no reason that I can think of that you would have switched and constant power wires joined. They are both 12v positive that have completely different functions. And never the twain shall meet. Normally anyway...

I need to see this bridge to know for sure. The instrument cluster would have an illuminated warning at all times if power is applied to B14 all the time. And your battery would drain quickly.
There's no reason I can think of that you would want constant power to the cluster.

No idea, but I would not think so. But you don't want to go there anyway. I'm not aware of anything in the cluster that needs 12v all the time.
In the dashboard you have things like the cigar lighter, radio memory, headlight switch, hazard switch, and that's about it. The cluster does not have anything with the need of Keep Alive Memory that I know of. So as far as I'm connerned until I find something different in the diagrams, you only want switched 12v to the cluster.


I'm going to need to study some more stuff so I don't steer you wrong. Do you have a link to the Painless instructions for your harness I can click on? Saves me from hunting it down.

Thanks

Paul

 

Paul,
Sorry, Im sure Im not explaining things the best because Im not super knowledgeable on wiring...
Attached is a pic of where the 12v source (Painless pin#7) is bridged/connected with the alternator regulator exciter (Painless pin#7) after these two wires are connected, they branch off gain to go out to the gauge cluster.

According to the Ford gauge cluster pinout, each plug has a 12v source going to it... presumably for the lights?

My understanding of pins B13 / B14 is that Im supposed to supply 12v to one in, and wire the alternator regulator exciter wire to the other. Is this not the case?


Link to Painless harness instructions: https://www.painlessperformance.com/Manuals/10118.pdf


Picture of where Painless pin#'s 2&7 bridge before splitting again:

 

Ok so I still say that there is no bridge required in this scheme. But if one is switched and the other is constant, then there is ABSOLUTELY NO GOOD FOR HAVING THEM CONNECTED.
If you connect a constant hot to a switched hot, then they both become constant and the function of switching is negated/eliminated. This is because wire is wire, and it does not care which way the current flows. And in addition, it does not care which one is switched and which one is constant. They are all constant at that point.

But is that truly spliced together under that tape? Did you do it yourself, or did it come that way? If it came that way are you sure it's not just an organizing feature of Painless to show they both go to the same region of the vehicle?
If you spliced them together yourself, then I think it's a mistake and they should be separated.
I'll read the instructions, but again, there is absolutely no reason to connect both switched and constant 12v wires together here. Maybe there is somewhere else? But if so I've never experienced it.

The lights would only have a wire from the light switch. Otherwise they will be on all the time as soon as you connect the battery.

That's exactly correct. But the 12v is ONLY from a switched source. Can't be constant.
Meaning it has to come from the ignition switch's ON/RUN position. Otherwise as I said your alternator will drain the battery any time the key is in ACC for listening to the radio.
Or in this case it's draining the battery as soon as you connect the battery because it's constant 12v from being spliced to the other wire.
Can never be constant, or connected to anything that's constant. If yours are spliced together, everything that is spliced together is constant 12v. Including your ignition because your ignition switch might use the same contact point for both the ignition and the regulator exciter. Not sure on yours, but older switches did this.

Paul

 

I am trying to upgrade my basic cluster to one with a tach as well. I have a 94 F250 and the cluster I got is from at 94 F150, both are 5.8L and the clusters were made one month apart. Everything I read tells me that I should have had no issues with a direct swap but when I do that my Voltmeter does not work. If I tap the gauge or turn the headlights on and off the volt gauge will go up in increments. I have already tried moving the C251 Pin #6 to pin #5 C250 but I get the same results. I would really appreciate any input anyone here can give me!

 

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Can I take a cluster out of a 1995 F-150 302 Eddie Bauer and put it in my 1997 F250HD 5.8l 4x4? My HD came without a tach and I found this one at the junkyard for $30.