AFR gauge not working.

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Cope

Fusing with fire
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When I put in my new dash I did not hook up the ground to my autometer wideband.
It was un hooked for a few days before I took the dash back out and hooked up the ground. Now with the ground hooked up the gauge won't come on. It's just black, no count down, nothing.

Could I have damaged it by habing the hot hooked up and no ground?

All the wiring is the same as before bit now it won't turn on.
What should I look at to get it back working?

I just put on a new carb so I would very much like to get it working again, not to mention it wasn't cheep and I don't want to buy a replacement....

Thanks again!
 
You don't know if it ever worked, call them tomorrow and ask why doesn't it work.
 
It worked fine before I moved it to the new dash. When I looked into it not working and realized its ground was was not hooked up, I touched the ground to the roll cage and it came on. The next day I hooked up the ground and nothing...
 
Let's back up a sec. You said all the wiring is the same as before. What changed with the installation of the new dash? Was this the ground for just the gauge, or was it also the ground for the AFR controller/sending unit? And what did you do while the ground was unhooked- ie, power up the dash, start the car, drive the car, etc?

AFR set ups are sensitive to grounding, especially the controllers. Touching the ground wire to the cage with all the power already on could definitely make the gauge and controller pretty, umm, unhappy to say the least. Or, turn them into bricks, in technical language. Digital components do not like voltage spikes or intermittent grounds. Is there a reset procedure for the controller? Have you cleaned all the ground terminals to bare metal and checked to make sure they're tight?
 
It was the ground for the display.
I did power up the gauges and drive the car with out the ground hooked up.
When I held the ground to the cage it did it's count down and worked fine.

The next day it is a brick..

The ground is clean and tight.
 
No, I even thought about fusing it separately because of how much it cost but when I wired it, I didn't do it....
Face palm...
 
I dont need to check it as all my gauges share one hot lead. They also share one ground. The AFR is the only one with its own ground as it came with it.
 
Do you know if you have anything from the controller? I would think the gauge would power up either way, but stranger things have happened.
 
I'll double check in the am.

The more I think about this I think I know the anwser but was hoping for a different anwser.

Wired correctly, hooked up correctly and not working = N.F.G.
 
You're probably right, but it's worth checking the power supply and the controller to make sure the gauge is getting power and a signal.

Once you do that you can pull the case on the gauge and see if there's anything obvious, melted wire, fried connection on the circuit board etc. Probably not repairable but at least you'd know for sure it's the gauge and not something else.
 
Mr AJ is the winner!

I pulled the dash out and cut the wires loose and low and behold the little hot wire to the gauge was CUT!
Maybe I snipped it when I was cutting zip ties but all is well in the world now!!

It just goes to show, no matter how sure you are start checking the basic stuff first.
No power=no workie.....
:)

Thanks again for reminding me to do what I should have done in the first place....
Now I can go back to working the stumble out of my new carb.. and wouldn't you know it the AFR reads 14 and I was thinking "if only I had my AFR working I could get this sucker running". Old school vacuum tuning dose work after all....

Thanks again for all the help.

I'm gonna go hide now and feal stupid where no one can see......
 
That beats the heck out of fried AFR gauge!

Although yeah, in the future be careful with that thing, digital components are a lot more sensitive to power spikes and bad grounds than the old analog stuff. Glad that wasn't it though!
 
In all the years I've been chasing wiring gremlins......... it has always required a complete circuit. Them little electrons need a hiway to get somewhere, and they need it to get back home again.
 
Don't feel stupid. My brand new wideband I installed is not working either and this thread has given me some ideas of what to look for. I am going to check the ground first and then the power. Like you I am currently mystified because the tach and wideband share the same power and ground, and the tach is working.
 
I am going to be working on the wiring to my gauge tonight. Are these things supposed to light up as soon as you turn the key on, or do you have to start the engine?
 
I am going to be working on the wiring to my gauge tonight. Are these things supposed to light up as soon as you turn the key on, or do you have to start the engine?

Should come on with the key, the O2 sensor is heated and should have power to fire it up before the engine starts
 
Mine was a similar problem to the OP. The tap connector I was using was not biting into the output wire, I had power in, but not out. With a new connector, the gauge now works. It seems to go through a calibration sequence when you turn the key on. Man is this thing running rich!

Wideband.jpg
 
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