Air/Fuel Gauge Help

[J-Rod76]

So… I installed the autometer phantom gauge and used a pigtail harness from Jeggs to "splice" into the existing harness. When the gauge is hooked up minus the signal wire from the O2 sensor, the gauge indicates full rich regardless of if the truck is running or not, but when I hook up the signal wire the gauge displays full lean, but the display indicator is dim (also not dependant on the truck running). The gauge eventually fades out and doesn’t display anything at all. Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

 

[J-Rod76]

So... no one has seen anything like this before? I'm wondering if maybe the gauge might be bad or if the pigtail harness might be wired wrong?

 

[203Cree]

Dunno bro... Haven't messed with mine yet so..

Good luck, you'll get it.

 

[TheFranchise]

Are you sure you spliced into the correct Signal Wire? Should be Drivers Side, far front 02 Sensor if I remember correctly. Also make sure that is has a good power source.

Which A/F guage do you have? The lightshow or the Wideband?

 

[J-Rod76]

I have the lightshow (autometer phantom series). I checked the power source and it reads ~12 VDC strong. I connected the adapter from Jeggs to the driver's side O2 sensor that is before the cats.

 

[bamaRed]

is the 12v hot when the truck is off? all its for if i rememebr right is to heat the sensor until the sensor gets up to running temp from the exhaust.

 

[TheFranchise]

I had problems with my 'Lightshow' after a few months. It caused some errors with my 02 Sensor. Disconnected it, and it fixed the problem. I am going to be switching to a Wideband hear in the NEAR future.

 

[J-Rod76]

It's connected to a "key-on" power source, so when the keys are out there is no power to the gauge.

 

[bamaRed]

ok, i have installed a few of these on turbo cars in the past and it was pretty easy.
but they were one wire o2 sensors i think. and i jsut spliced the signal wire to that and one to the 12v and one to a GOOD ground.

when i started it, it would be rich until lean until it warmed up, then it would go to "stoche" or whatever, and when i drove it , it would go under boost and go in to the rich side 3 or 4 bars.
besides that, got me i would be lost too! im sure you have drove it to check and see if it moves right?
hope you get it figured out.

 

[1BAD93SVT]

So… I installed the autometer phantom gauge and used a pigtail harness from Jeggs to "splice" into the existing harness. When the gauge is hooked up minus the signal wire from the O2 sensor, the gauge indicates full rich regardless of if the truck is running or not, but when I hook up the signal wire the gauge displays full lean, but the display indicator is dim (also not dependant on the truck running). The gauge eventually fades out and doesn’t display anything at all. Any ideas or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

if its just the a/f gauge, versus the aem type with o2 sensor, its not going to be very accurate

 

[bamaRed]

this is what i bought for my set up, with the duel widebands. not installed yet tho =(

 

[J-Rod76]

Yeah, I drove around with it and it didn't move. When I first fire it up it will show up as being lean, but the indicator light looks dim. Then after a minute or two it fades out completely. I think I may have a bad gauge. I may just suck it up and get a real wideband setup.

The Altronics setup looks nice, how much did it set you back?

 

[bamaRed]

ahhhhhhh u might not want to know. for real. the duel set up like i got is around 700.00 or so.
you can get just the single tho and its alot cheaper. like 400-450.

go here
check out the red alert2
http://www.altronicsinc.com/
might have to do a little looking to figure the site out, but its there.

 

[SVT99RED]

I got my aem wideband for $270 and its accruate to .01 of the actual a/f ratio

 

[bamaRed]

thats a better deal if you jsut want to do the A/F ratio for quick refferance. but i got mine for data logging.

 

[203Cree]

Jared, did you have it calibrated?

 

[J-Rod76]

No, I didn't know that you need to have them calibrated.

I wanted the gauge more for situational awareness purposes than anything else. I have a 6lb lower using a canned predator tune, so until I have the opportunity to get the truck on a dyno, I’d at least like to have a general idea of whether I’m running lean or rich.

 

[203Cree]

Before you go any further, I suggest you look into this....

http://www.gadgetseller.com/gauges/index.htm

 

[J-Rod76]

Before you go any further, I suggest you look into this....

http://www.gadgetseller.com/gauges/index.htm

Thanks, that was actually a lot of help. I'm going to check the signal wire with a volt meter to make sure that I'm actually getting a signal from the O2 sensor. Then I'll either send my gauge off to have it calibrated or just pick up one from gadgetseller that is already good to go.