Home Introduction Buyers Guide Dreams Latest Fame For Sale Capri Forum History Jobs My Capris News Archive Pictures Q & A Rant & Rave 2016 Restoration Service Technical Unleaded
The Ford Capri Laser Page


2 - 6 Heave!!! (or how to fit a six-dial dash)

by Tony Holt (Kings Lynn Capri Club)

Changing from the two-clock dash to the six-clock dash is entirely do-able, as long as you can trace the electrical circuits. Why? Because with the best will in the world the Haynes manual diagram can only be described as approximate, largely due to Ford's inability to stick to the wiring colour codes.

Tools:

Other bits:


Now is a good time to check the six-clock pod's circuitry. This can be easily done as the circuit 'board' is clear flexible plastic and all the tracks are visible. With your paper create an image of the terminal connector 'hole' showing the fourteen electrical connection points. Next, mark the point with no copper track - this is a useful guide to orientation (it reduces the chance of rewiring incorrectly - got the T-shirt!).

The rest of the tracing goes like this;-

Find the two tracks which go to multiple differing items around the pod, these are the earth lines. Mark their connector points. Next find the track that goes to all the bulbs and mark its connector point 'illumination'. Carry on working round each connector point until they are all identified on the drawing of the plug hole.

IMPORTANT! Work out NOW how the drawing relates to the plug and remember this for later. Once all the points are accounted for you should have:


Now repeat the process for the two-clock dash as follows; -

Disconnect the battery now. Dismantle the dash to the point where you can ease the pod forward.  Disconnect the Speedometer cable and tilt the top of the pod towards you until you can see the connector plug.

Examination of the plug reveals 'SHOCK HORROR' only twelve connectors. So create a new sketch with the SAME orientation as before, again to prevent problems later. At this point the plan deviates slightly in that before identifying what each connector point does it is necessary to mark the colour of the currently fitted wire onto the drawing for each connector point. Once this is done, remove the plug and retire with the pod to somewhere more comfortable and repeat the tracking and marking process.

Now there are two drawing which are very similar and by comparing them they should reveal (if all has gone well) that eleven of the connection points on the ‘two-clock’ drawing have an equivalent identification on the ‘six-clock’ drawing. The one on its own is the Oil Pressure Sender Warning connector wire which we are going to use to connect the Rev Counter to the Coil LT side (-ve).  This leaves two connectors without equivalent wires. These are for the Ammeter.

What you do now is to mark on the six-clock drawing the colour code of each equivalent connector from the two-clock drawing. Thus the wire codes are transferred to the six-clock picture ready for the real wire transfer. DOUBLE CHECK THIS NOW!

When you're convinced you've got it right it is time to put your money where your mouth is and transfer the wires to the six-clock plug. Using the thin bladed screwdriver carefully remove each wire and fit it to the correct position in the other plug as identified by the drawing. CHECK ORIENTATION OF PLUG AND DRAWING, and keep checking as you go along.

Repeat until the two-clock plug is empty and there are two holes left in the six-clock plug. (These were together on mine, alongside the blank position.) If you were lucky enough to get the six-clock plug with wires hanging off it you'll have the ability to wire in the ammeter, but to be honest there isn't a great deal of loss if you can't (more later).

Now is a good time to fit the oil pressure adaptor - in place of the pressure sender, and move the oil pressure sender wire to the negative side of the coil, attaching it either using a piggy back spade connector or a 'Scotchlok' connector. Fit the oil pressure pipe and route it into the cab, this should be easy as the pipe is shaped, so it points to the bung hole it goes through and it (the pipe) should already have the correct bung fitted.

Time for a test!

Fit the plug to the new pod and reconnect the battery………

No fumes/fires/blown fuses? Great!

Now switch on the ignition and check warning lights and gauges for correct operation/indication.

All correct? Good! Then switch off.

Connect the oil pressure pipe to the gauge - make it a tight fit (no leaks).

"DRIVERS START YOUR ENGINES!" ahem, start up the engine and check that everything on the pod is responding correctly AND the oil pipe isn't dribbling onto your (newly cleaned?) carpet. If there have been any problems, recheck the wiring, if necessary using the multimeter and long wire to find both ends of each loom wire.

Once all is well, rebuild the dash and give the car a run checking the water temp, which should read similarly to its predecessor. If not try one of the other senders available - or live with it! If it doesn't read at all then recheck the connections.

Wiring up the Ammeter:

I did it but I'm not convinced of its worth.  If you really want to do it then make up two wires;-

Connect one to the 'charging' side of the power system - I used one of the large (brown on mine) wires going to the ignition, and the other to the 'discharge' side of the system - I used a wire linked to the battery +ve.

This will show movement as a plus or minus element (i.e. charging and discharging). If it is backwards, swap the wires around. To be honest a voltmeter in this position would be far more useful, and if I work out how to do it I'll get into print again.

So there it is.

If I haven't lost you along the way then there's a very good chance you'll do it without problems. GOOD LUCK.


















This web page is owned

and operated by Mark Swetnam

Last updated 26/10/21
©1995 to 2021

E-mail: Mark@Swetnam.co.uk


Keeping 'The Legend Alive' on the World Wide Web since 1995!


Previous Up Next
#top