So after many years now trying to get someone to wire my car, or trying myself, getting majorly confused by it all, the other night I had a moment of clarity and it all suddenly made sense.
Weird. Its coming along quite nicely now. A bit too easily.

I notice that on the dash, a lot of things need earth connection. I counted about 20 things on my dash board that need earths, and almost as many needing 12v+ from the key switch (gauges, gauge illumination etc)
What's the best way to do this? I don't really want everything soldered together, do I?!
Ring terminal on every earth and bolt through the lot?

If you look at oem spec looms you will find they have multi things running from one feed or return. Just make sure the cable is capable and fused. Re the earth some items like there own earth to reduce interferance.

I would defiantly have all the gauge back lights on one. Gauge power supply's on another ect.

[Edited on 18/7/15 by big_wasa]

Not sure if its a good idea or not but I have a earth bus bar under the dash.

I've used a 3x 6-way distribution block as a 'bus bar' to distribute GND, 12V (sidelights on) and 12V (ignition on). You can see it in the picture above between the gauges.

[Edited on 19/7/2015 by Quinten]

Make your dash removable too, by having a few large multi pin connectors. Then if (when!!) you need to remove it, it is a 30 second job rather than an electrical nightmare...

I plan on using these dotted around behind the dash for various earths.
5 x Pop rivet earth terminals cars vans Land Rovers

When I was building my JC Midge (ply body) I used a length of bright angle with a main earth to the chassis and then drilled it a number of times and earthed anything I wanted to it via ring terminals.

My scuttle has a box section frame to hold the ally cladding in shape so this became a full width bus bar in my case.

I would think an ally angle, say 20mm, fixed to the back of the dash would make a good earth bar, with a single
thickish wire to the chassis.


Run a wire from the side light circuit for gauge illumination and loop from gauge to gauge.

Some gauges may need a voltage stabiliser/regulator to give an accurate reading; fuel, temperature etc. ( Google )
A car battery varies in voltage depending on engine revs etc but a reg gives a steady 10v all the time.


HTH

Paul G

Wow quinten, that's so neat! What are these distribution blocks?
Some good ideas there, thanks guys

I've got a volt meter in the dash at the moment, really just filling an already cut hole in a 2nd hand dash, 4 wires out of it, + & -for the gauge, and for the lamp. But the lamp also earths through the body of that gauge. Of course the gauges are covered in screws that can be used to earth stuff, so I think I'm going to connect them all together and earth everything through them.

+he a little more tricky, but I think some suggestions here are giving me a good plan thanks

They are Durite: http://www.thetoolboxshop.com/0-005-53-durite-3-x-6-way-terminal-block-25a-7277.html

I've used several, and they make for a very neat solution (imho)