Tech Talk Tuesday: How to Wire the Dakota Digital RTX Gauges in a Dodge Challenger or Plymouth 'cuda

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[@LifeatSpeed]

Some questions have come up regarding the wiring of the instrument cluster, so let me try and answer them here. For the two power wires I attached them to the open spots on the bottom of the factory fuse box, so no cutting required, just plug into the open ports. For the fuel sender you could use the factory wire for one of the wires, but the Dakota Digital kit requires 2 wires, one to attach to the normal location on the fuel sender and one to attach to the fuel sender as a ground. And since I had to run one wire to the tank anyways I decided to just run a pair of new wires and not cut the factory harness. As for the oil pressure and water temperature, yes they need new harnesses as they have new sensors that are not like the factory units. The factory water temp and oil pressure sensors have 1 wire each, the new water temp sensor has 2 wires and the oil pressure has 4. Plus the new sensors have special plugs on them. It's a lot easier to use what comes in the Dakota Digital kit than try and splice into the factory harness.

[@russellsprague2140]

I have a few questions regarding a few scenarios. Any way to touch base with you other than here?

[@LifeatSpeed]

You can shoot me an email at [e-mail]

[@russellsprague2140]

@@LifeatSpeed will do now. Thanks.

[@ibanezsrbass1759]

But how did you attach the ground wire to the Feul Sending Unit?? I am in the process of doing this now???

[@LifeatSpeed]

Solder a connection lead to the sending unit to attach the wire to

[@throttleblip1]

The part that sucks about Dakota digital is their control box... If you don't have space behind the dash you've got to run the thing across the whole vehicle and use an extra 6 ft wire

[@alirezashirazifard8990]

Thank you for making it simple for us.

[@orlandosantellano4251]

Thanks for the confidence great video and info

[@SHOWandGOresto]

1...very interesting. Good to know about the senders fitting. I wonder and hope the brain box is reliable.

[@LifeatSpeed]

I hope so too. Time will tell. The good news is Dakota Digital has been around for decades so I think the chances are pretty good the box lasts.

[@alcc4964]

I run my parking lights during the day..will the dash light be too dim? I ask because I run Halo lights during the day and don’t want the dash light to be in night mode. Ideally I would like parking light in day time mode and when the headlights are on, (knob pulled all the way out) then night mode would be great. Any suggestion on how to accomplish that? Thanks

[@LifeatSpeed]

I'd give Dakota Digital a call. It has been a couple of years since I installed mine, and my memory of how all that worked is a bit fuzzy. I know you can have different settings for brightness, and even install an adjustable dimmer switch to change it on the fly as well.

[@OnederElite]

What do you hook up the white/black and white/green wires that plug into the back of the gauges into?

[@68maro13]

Nice video. Quick question, what type of lift do you have?

[@LifeatSpeed]

Thanks! The lift I have is from Direct Lift. directlift.com/product/pro-park-8s/

[@metalbob3335]

I don't know if you have the factory facsimile for the model's tires or not but has it maintained it's accuracy of its speedometer or has it improved?

[@LifeatSpeed]

The speedometer is dialed in. It was real easy to calibrate. I had a gps speedometer on my cell phone and adjusted the speedometer in the car to match. Took less than 5 minutes to dial in.

[@metalbob3335]

@@LifeatSpeed oh that's neat thank you!

[@LifeatSpeed]

@@metalbob3335 you're welcome. It makes it really nice down the road as well if I swap rear axle ratios, tire size or even transmission. I don't have to worry about the speedometer, because I can simply re-calibrate it in under 5 minutes to accommodate for any changes I make.

[@calereeves6936]

How did you terminate the wires in the control box? Bare wires, or did you solder or crimp ferrules on them?

[@LifeatSpeed]

In the control box you just slide in the bare wire into the designated slot and tighten the screw on the control box

[@carsonkelly2123]

Question: if you can answer, what if you have an HEI distributor and no coil, where do you hook up wire?

[@LifeatSpeed]

The HEI distributor should have a connection point for the tach. You'll need to check the instructions for your specific distributor.

[@carsonkelly2123]

@@LifeatSpeed Thank you. I’m pretty much like you. I have a 70 SS EL CO and wiring is not my cup of tea. I really like the Dakota Digital they make for my car but wondering if I can tackle it. After I unplug dash wiring harness, does it remain or do I need to trace wires and tap into it? Thanks for you’re time. I may have more questions if I purchase if that’s alright with you. 😊

[@LifeatSpeed]

The Dakota Digital wiring doesn't use much of the factory harness. I left the factory harness in place and just tied the instrument cluster wires out of the way. It really is an easy installation. Feel free to ask me any questions you come up with.

[@carsonkelly2123]

@@LifeatSpeed awesome. Ok , you convinced me. Time to buy… 1 more Q: Are the instructions included? Sometimes it’s just a diagram. Thanks again!

[@LifeatSpeed]

They come with pretty thorough instructions

[@mastermatt289]

Does it come with a gps speedo and does it come with the signal box to run the speedo

[@LifeatSpeed]

Gps speedo is an upgrade option. Standard is basic electric speedo with a unit that screws into the factory mechanical speedo input on the transmission.

[@superbirdrag]

What did you do with the old wires that went to the old cluster

[@LifeatSpeed]

They're sitting in the dash not connected to anything

[@MysterBz]

How did you attach the negative to the body of the fuel sender?

[@LifeatSpeed]

Temporarily I used a hose clamp to attach it to the outlet. Long term I will solder a terminal to the body

[@MysterBz]

@@LifeatSpeed Hey thanks! Appreciate your videos.

[@LifeatSpeed]

My pleasure! Glad I can help.

[@claytonhaske]

Is there anyway to integrate the dimmer on the dakota digital dash into the factory dash dimmer switch? I'm going from a standard gauges to rally gauges, and don't have a 4 light bar.

[@LifeatSpeed]

You don't need the 4 light bar, you can reuse the 3 light bar. The new gauges are back lit and so you don't need to hook up the overhead lights at all. Dakota sells their own external dimmer you can integrate if you choose. I opted to just adjust it within the settings.

[@claytonhaske]

@@LifeatSpeed I understand dakota sells their own dimmer switch, but like you said it didn't look factory. I'd like to be able to adjust the backlight on the dakota digital gauges with the factory dash dimmer switch. Is that possible? I don't want an extra dimmer knob on the dash, it won't look factory.

[@LifeatSpeed]

I'm sure anything is possible, but I didn't look into hooking up the factory dimmer. I simply set a brightness level for day and one for night (when the headlights are on) and called it a day. Since I never fiddle with my light settings, there was no need to attempt to find a way to wire the factory dimmer. Sorry I don't have a better answer for you.

[@claytonhaske]

@@LifeatSpeed no problems brother, you have been a big help. Much love and appreciation!!!

[@LifeatSpeed]

@@claytonhaske thinking about this further, you have a couple of options. First is to take the dakota digital dimmer and find a way to custom mount it in place of the original dimmer and attach the original dimmer knob. The other option is to determine the resistance range of both the original dimmer and the dakota digital dimmer and see if they are close enough to wire up the original one.

[@andykattan6876]

I was waiting on how to install it, but dude just talked.