electric oil pressure gage

[pudman]

I've just installed an electric oil pressure gage on my 1998 escort wagon. I hooked up the 12 volt power source directly to the battery. Everything works fine, but I'm wondering if this is O.K to do it this way instead of a switchable 12 volt source. Will doing it the way I did it damage the gage or worse yet cause a meltdown or fire?

 

[BlownFiveLiter]

It's probably not going to damage anything, but it will most likely drain your battery completely dead overnight. Without being on a switched source, it's going to "sense" the whole time.

 

[pudman]

It's probably not going to damage anything, but it will most likely drain your battery completely dead overnight. Without being on a switched source, it's going to "sense" the whole time.

thanks for the response. it's been hooked up since Saturday, and so far I've noticed no difference in battery power. But I think I will do it right. One more problem I have is the dimming of the light. The gage does the opposite of the instrument cluster. Full instrument light... no gage. Full gage... no instrument light. Would this be caused by Ford using a negative dimmer operation? I've grounded gage and 12 volt power spliced into the dimmer switch.