Vintage Gauge Calibration Memory

[teesalmon]

Does anyone know if the Vintage gauges retain calibration if the battery is disconnected?

The Tach, Speedo, Clock, and Fuel Gauge require calibration. The kit comes with one button/cable assembly that is used to get everything set. Practically thinking, probably only the clock might need tweaked now and then, and the rest should never need attention after the first calibration as long as the calibration is retained if power is lost. Therefore I would leave the cable attached to the clock.

Otherwise, I will make three additional cables mounted on a hidden calibration panel in case the battery is disconnected (which it will be now and then). I know I don't want to have top reach up behind the dash and move the cable from gauge to gauge.

I am betting the calibration is held, but I want to ask just in case.

While I'm posting, has anyone used a common ground for the Vintage gauges as the Autometer gauges use? The Vintage Gauges run two wires to all the sensors, and the Ron Francis Harness is not set up that way. I can accommodate two wires (and probably will) since I've unraveled the RF harness and reconfigured to better fit my layout. However, just curious a to see if anyone else has just used one wire and the chassis ground (assuming the second wire is just a dedicated return ground).

Thx in advance.

[DaleG]

I found this write-up from Jeff to be of great help:

Jeff Kleiner’s WIRING DIRECTIONS
The Speedhut/FFR Classic gauges use 2 wire senders while the RF harness is set up for one wire so I recommend doing kind of a hybrid that will incorporate the pigtails with the black/white wires. You'll need to power up all of the gauges on their red wire by connecting them to the brown "gauge feed" wire in the harness. Also connect the black "ground" wire in the dash harness to each of the gauges' black wires. You will carry the tachometer signal from the coil on the purple "coil-tach" wire that runs all the way through in the sending units subharness. The speedo signal comes from the trans through the green and gray wires which will join the yellow/red and yellow/black wires on the gauge. Polarity is not important as it is only counting pulses. For the coolant temperature and oil pressure gauges run the long pigtail with the yellow/red and yellow/black wires to their respective senders. Once again polarity is not an issue because these are reading resistance. The voltmeter has no sender, the gauge power and ground give it all it needs. Fuel gauge connects to the light green "gas sender" wire. I recommend powering the clock from the red "radio memory" wire. That will get everything working.

Next move on to gauge lighting. The white wire from all of the gauges connects to the RF harness white "dash lights" wire. If you have the seperate dimmer module the white harness "dash lights" wire connects to the input of the dimmer; the dimmer's black ground connects to the black harness ground. From there the dimmers output snaps into the daisy chain connectors for the lighter gauge wire. It seems redundant but is this way because the needles are lighted independently from the gauge face and are not dimmed. If you do not have the dimmer module then the small white wire at the end of the snap together chain also connects to the harness "dash lights" wire, not directly to the headlight switch. By the way, before you drive yourself crazy thinking something is wrong---the hands on the clock are not lighted.

Good luck,
Jeff

I'm also hoping the gauges retain their memory if they lose power. I installed the original + 2 additional button cables for calibration and put all 3 in the glove compartment with labels.

[edwardb]

I'm 99.9% certain they retain their settings without power. Just finished my first year with my Mk4 with Speedhut vintage gauges. It's in storage now (:() so I'll give you a 100% answer in the spring. But during the driving season, I had the main disconnect off for extended periods on multiple occasions. Usually just a few days at a time, but once for 2-3 weeks. Nothing was ever lost.

[Jeff Kleiner]

They retain memory. If the clock is like the ones I have encountered it will need to be reset frequently (like weekly...they actually gain time).

Jeff