Wiring Beck Guages

No the VS harness is different colors, you'll have to know what the actual wire functions are to be able to wire the gauges correctly.  I have done this a couple of times, if you get hung up PM me

You will need a voltmeter to test for constant 12v power and switched 12v. I recently installed a Beck Speedo in my Fiberfab Speedster. Is was relatively easy using the included diagram and then finding the two power sources.

You could look at my build thread for my Speedster. It is a VS harness I got from Kirk back in the day... and I wired up Beck gauges

Thank you guys. It may be a little bit before I get to it. I'm back to working 60+ hours per week. When I get on this I'll probably touch base with you when/if I get stuck. LOL

Robert,

Just saw your post.  It  looks like you have the answers above, but it shouldn't be too difficult to trace down the wires.  I built my own wiring harness, so my wire colors don't match any others! 

If you have problems, I will be glad to help answer questions.  Also, Carey and Brad at Beck was very helpful with questions on my gauges.

QUESTION:  I was wondering if the GREEN ARROW, turn signal red is powered off the main instrument power and if the black is simply grounded when you hit the signal light switch. 

The reason I am asking is that I complete forgot how I wired in a flash to pass module and I did not include the Green Arrow and now I want to add it so that it flashes as well.  I will have to add two diodes to make sure the circuit goes one way and not across to the other side. 

I wired my single(green) turn signal indicator light with 2 diodes so it works when either L or R is selected.

Ray, the Hi-beam(blue) indicator lights on flash-to-pass on my car. Are you over-thinking this?

Yeah I think I fogged out for a minute   Thanks Danny

Worked on the gauges today and have gotten through almost all of the work. Made a new string of connectors for the ground wires since the Beck gauges aren’t grounded through the gauge housing. Had to add one 12V switched connector and I still need to connect the constant 12V power source for the GPS sender. 

What has me stuck is a wire that was attached to the center of the old speedometer next to the cable. I recognized where the wires from the light switch connected to the two bulbs that illuminate the speedometer. That was easy since it was a long string of wires that ran continuously to all of the light bulbs. This is a separate wire that connected near the center of the speedometer and I haven’t been able to locate where the wire terminates. 

Any help from someone who has replaced their Chinese repops from VS with Beck gauges would be appreciated. There aren’t any open connections on the back of the Becks so I’m pretty sure I have the gauges connected properly. 

The bulb sockets are grounded to the speedo case and that tab is for Ground 

Okay, thank you. As I was writing it I started to wonder if that wasn’t a ground. I’ll need to trace the wire that was connected there to make sure it isn’t connected to something else. 

Gauges are all in.

If you own a Kirk Duncan/VS built Speedster the directions I'm giving apply to you. Maybe to others also but there's no guarantee.

I began by removing all of my gauges one at a time. I made note of where each wire went into the back of the gauge and what it corresponded to on the front of the gauge. I put a piece of tape on the wire with a letter and a corresponding note on the back of the wiring diagram from above indicating what the wire was for. ie. - T - temperature, OP - Oil Pressure, TI - Turn Indicators, ALT - Alternator, etc etc. I disconnected the cable and pulled everything out.

There were two sets of daisy chained connectors. One daisy chain was a white wire coming off of the light switch. Naturally this was for the gauge lights. The other daisy chain wire was red and was for the 12V switched power.

I noticed on the wiring diagram for the Beck gauges there is a notation indicating the gauges are not grounded through the gauge housing. I made a longish daisy chain of connectors with a black wire to use as a ground for all of the gauges.

As was stated earlier when I asked for help with the wire coming off of the back of the analog speedometer, that is the ground wire for the turn signals. There were actually two brown wires with one coming from the steering wheel column (turn signal lever) and one coming from a relay (flasher relay) and they were connected together and plugged into the back of the speedometer. I connected those wires to the new black daisy chain for the ground and got it all connected together.

I reconnected all of the instrument control wires from their respective devices to the back of the Beck gauges. I connected the red daisy chain to the power side of the gauge connection points and the ground wires to the ground locations on the back of the gauges. Finally I connected the white daisy chain power wire from the headlight switch. On the back of the combo gauge there are three sets of very thin black and red wires. The middle one is for the turn signals and the two outside wires are optional. I suppose you could use one for fog lights to remind you they are on and the left one......well, I don't know what you would use it for.

Next I hooked up the GPS sender so it had constant power and connected it to the back of the speedometer. I switched out the fuel tank sending unit. FWIW, do the upgrade when you have a half tank of gas or less or you'll need to siphon out some of the gas like I did. I didn't have the necessary part to change out the oil temperature sender but it has been ordered and is on its way. The oil temperature/pressure senders in my car now have very large diameter shafts and the sender that comes with the Beck gauges is a much smaller diameter. *longfella posted the part number for the adapter which I didn't order until today. I disconnected the current oil temperature sender so as not to mess up the new gauge. Not sure if it will but I disconnected it to be safe anyway.

I started the car and so far everything is working as it should. I will be taking it for a drive in a little bit to check the speedometer.

Great explanation 

on the signal lights looking to figure out the logic 

the red and black wires for the turn signal are always fed 12 v on the red and the arm switch grounds it and the flasher activate it ?   

i

Yes Ray, the turn signal flasher gets switched 12v and the turn switch is grounded and selectively grounds  L or R.

Thanks @dannyp for clarifying the logic. : ) 

IaM-Ray posted:

Thanks @dannyp for clarifying the logic. : ) 

My apologies on that Ray, I forgot to mention that with the flashers. I used the wire (green on my car) from the steering column and attached that to the black wire and the red wire was daisy chained to all of the other 12V switched wires. 

All in all this was a very easy install. I made the mistake of staring at the wiring diagram and tried to figure all that out in my head before taking anything apart. Once I had everything apart and labeled, assembled the daisy chain of connectors, and started the install it all came together very easily.

The reason I am asking these questions is that as I get DEAF I can't hear the signal light blinker so I have installed a 6 secs Lane Flasher but my Ididit column, will not allow me to give a short pulse easily and I have to make the center dash light flash.  

So my plan is to install a membrane micro pulse switch (x2) buried under an area that I can simply depress whenever I want to change lanes.  the big feature is that IT will NEVER WILL LEAVE THE FLASHERS ON... 

Other than that an electric cow fence with a alligator clip to my ear might help me to remember that is still flashing. 

I should also thank Carey Hines for answering a text message when I started the install and *Lonfella for answering another question. Then we had a nice chat on the phone about all manner of things not necessarily related to Speedsters. I also used the information off of his build thread to order the correct part for the oil temp sender. The funny thing is when I asked Carey the question I also had the answer. I guess it's true you don't always know what you already know.  Thank you everyone.

Almost forgot to post the obligatory photo of the new gauges:

The adapter for the oil temperature sensor came in and I managed to get everything installed in a few minutes. Anand and I took the car out today for a run to make sure it worked and it did.

I was wondering if anyone with the new Beck gauges has calibrated the gauge at all to see what the oil temperature is in comparison to where the needle is at? Using an infrared meter, and I know these ay or may not be 100% accurate, Anand took a reading on the sump and it read 155 degrees after an hour of driving. One of the cylinder heads read about 202 degrees and oil on the dipstick read about 145 degrees. Ambient air temperature was probably only 62 degrees which kept everything a lot cooler.

My plan is to buy a dipstick with a thermometer on it so I can keep an eye on the oil temperature.

TTT