The 72 Demon Follies....
Time for an update....here in Florida, the mid-June to early September timeframe is the "down time" for racing. Good time to catch your breath, and do those jobs on the car you've put off because you didn't want to have it down and miss some event.
So I've taken some time to update the instrument panel gauge set - or more accurately just move the gauges where I want them and get rid of the spaghetti harness the PO must have made. The gauge panel connects via a 12-pin connector so other than having to drop the steering column, it's relatively simple to remove it and work on it on the bench.
I moved the smaller gauges around to what I thought are more intuitive. Trans temp on far left, voltage next (that gauge is somewhat blocked by the steering wheel), and then the coolant gauge. I put the oil pressure gauge over on the far right where it's easy to see. The tach was never hooked up as I'm not a fan of having to look down at a tach if the loud pedal is in heavy use! (I have a mid-size tach up on top of the dash but even that is mostly useless at the track as I have a programmable shift light that stares at me and tells me when to shift.) And the speedo has never been hooked up and shall remain that way. Keep in mind this gauge panel and all the Autometer Sport-Comp gauges in it came with the car when I bought it as a roller in 2019. But after learning the MSD box can power both tachs, I went ahead and hooked up the dash tach.
Then I got rid of some of the indicator lights (they were all red) and their tacky white labels. Since there were 5 holes in the panel for them, I went ahead and got new LEDs for them (diff colors) and put back what I thought were somewhat useful ones (like Line-Lock, fan on, etc). Some are duplicate to my switch panel but I did add a coolant switch and wiring underhood to run a "coolant hot" idiot light. That way, if my eye isn't paying attention to the temp gauge, ole dummy here will hopefully get a light to remind him to turn on the fan(s)! (I switch the fans manually so they're only on when I want them on.) Lastly, I got some black lettering to label the idiot lights. The letters were bigger than I expected/wanted but, after paying for them, by golly they got used!
Here's the wiring for the panel at the start. I liked the lamp cord powering some of the various gauges/lights: Nope, that had to go! Before:
After:
It's a LOT of wires! 6 gauges, so + and - for their lights, their power, and then the signal wires for each. Then add the 5 indicator lights which get a signal coming in and a ground. Just lots of wires in a small space!
The finished product facing the driver:
Ok, so what else to do? I'd like to hook up the vacuum advance on the dist for street driving. Maybe improve the fuel economy and generally make the motor happier. But the can that's in there adds too much spark so I'll have to either weld up a slot, change the can, or otherwise tame it down. We shall see...
One thing that has proven to be pleasant is that, so far, this car cools very well with its low-budget Champion radiator and dual electric puller fans. Florida 95-98F days and it can be driven wherever whenever. I wish my show pony 71 Demon 340 cooled like this (it doesn't!) but we'll have to see if a new Glen-Ray rad for that one will be the ticket. But I'll save that for a different thread!
Time for an update....here in Florida, the mid-June to early September timeframe is the "down time" for racing. Good time to catch your breath, and do those jobs on the car you've put off because you didn't want to have it down and miss some event.
So I've taken some time to update the instrument panel gauge set - or more accurately just move the gauges where I want them and get rid of the spaghetti harness the PO must have made. The gauge panel connects via a 12-pin connector so other than having to drop the steering column, it's relatively simple to remove it and work on it on the bench.
I moved the smaller gauges around to what I thought are more intuitive. Trans temp on far left, voltage next (that gauge is somewhat blocked by the steering wheel), and then the coolant gauge. I put the oil pressure gauge over on the far right where it's easy to see. The tach was never hooked up as I'm not a fan of having to look down at a tach if the loud pedal is in heavy use! (I have a mid-size tach up on top of the dash but even that is mostly useless at the track as I have a programmable shift light that stares at me and tells me when to shift.) And the speedo has never been hooked up and shall remain that way. Keep in mind this gauge panel and all the Autometer Sport-Comp gauges in it came with the car when I bought it as a roller in 2019. But after learning the MSD box can power both tachs, I went ahead and hooked up the dash tach.
Then I got rid of some of the indicator lights (they were all red) and their tacky white labels. Since there were 5 holes in the panel for them, I went ahead and got new LEDs for them (diff colors) and put back what I thought were somewhat useful ones (like Line-Lock, fan on, etc). Some are duplicate to my switch panel but I did add a coolant switch and wiring underhood to run a "coolant hot" idiot light. That way, if my eye isn't paying attention to the temp gauge, ole dummy here will hopefully get a light to remind him to turn on the fan(s)! (I switch the fans manually so they're only on when I want them on.) Lastly, I got some black lettering to label the idiot lights. The letters were bigger than I expected/wanted but, after paying for them, by golly they got used!
Here's the wiring for the panel at the start. I liked the lamp cord powering some of the various gauges/lights: Nope, that had to go! Before:
After:
It's a LOT of wires! 6 gauges, so + and - for their lights, their power, and then the signal wires for each. Then add the 5 indicator lights which get a signal coming in and a ground. Just lots of wires in a small space!
The finished product facing the driver:
Ok, so what else to do? I'd like to hook up the vacuum advance on the dist for street driving. Maybe improve the fuel economy and generally make the motor happier. But the can that's in there adds too much spark so I'll have to either weld up a slot, change the can, or otherwise tame it down. We shall see...
One thing that has proven to be pleasant is that, so far, this car cools very well with its low-budget Champion radiator and dual electric puller fans. Florida 95-98F days and it can be driven wherever whenever. I wish my show pony 71 Demon 340 cooled like this (it doesn't!) but we'll have to see if a new Glen-Ray rad for that one will be the ticket. But I'll save that for a different thread!