How to tap into chime box for accessory power

[Gonzo406]

I apologize if this has been done before but after a few months of reading the all the popular threads on here I never saw this mentioned or done, hopefully this helps someone else out. Anyways I'm in the process of adding a factory match autometer tranny temp sensor. I wanted to keep my chime box (wife occasionally drives my non auto headlights truck) and use the power, ground, and dimmer terminals for my gauge. I've heard of people using thin gauge wire and tapping into the terminals but I wanted a more reliable solution that looked more oe. I pulled the box, went to my thinking spot and after a few minutes I decided to try my luck in opening the box and internally soldering the the connections. I drilled out the plastic rivets holding the box together and I noticed that 3 of the 5 terminals had a little holes. The lid of the box has little prongs that go through these holes. I grabbed my power wire threaded it in the hole, soldered it, and ran it through a grommet I had put in the 2nd half of the box.

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The illuminating and ground terminals are on the other side. The 3 terminals on the left side of the box do not have the little alignment holes to tie in the wires so I drilled a hole but when I put the box together I realized that wire in this hole would prevent the box from being put back together properly so I just soldered it to main board

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did the same for the ground. I epoxied the box shut after running the wires through the added grommet. I used male spade terminals on the other end of the wire, where I would later be making my connections inside the a pillar. I removed the annoying plasting covering they have with my mini torch and used shrink wrap to replace the plastic I had removed.

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hopefully tomorrow I will have my gauge hooked up!

 

[deejaaa]

looks good and clean. is this the OE box or the replacement used in the cars? i'm gonna swap to the chime later and might prewire it like you.

 

[Gonzo406]

looks good and clean. is this the OE box or the replacement used in the cars? i'm gonna swap to the chime later and might prewire it like you.

This is the oe box with the constant buzzer. I thought about going to the junkyard to get a box from a car but I had made my gauge pod before the gauge was actually delivered so when the ups Santa delivered the gauge I was pretty anxious to get it done, I'm not very patient haha however it turns out I had misread the gauge measurements and the pod I had made was too big for the gauge. One whole day of sanding and blending down the drain

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oh well.. I had a spare rear hvac control panel, which doesn't have the rounded edges like the blanks do and I'm currently working on getting that one finished

 

[deejaaa]

a little epoxy filler would be quicker. can't wait. i have an overhead console also.

 

[Gonzo406]

All buttoned up

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