help me find a wire

[351Cleveland C4]

i need to find a wire under the dash that is hot with the key... to hook up my tachometer. also would like to know what wire powers the dash lights, (to light the tach). ive looked through the diagrams here and i got kinda confused.. if someone knows what wire is hot with the key right off theyre head, that would be great....

[Calfdemon]

If you look at where your windshield wipers controls are plugged into, they should be plugged into a wire that has 3 sockets (look behind your ignition). There should be at least one of these sockets available. They are hot once the ignition is started and are for aftermarket add-ons such as your tach. As for the dash lights, off the top of my head, look for a light blue wire (with a yellow or white stripe I believe) in your wiring loom. You will see that same wire go to the lights on the back of your dash and probably one going to your cigarette lighter area (if you have one) as they had a light affixed to the top of the lighter housing.

[Art]

I remember the dash lighting being powered by a wire that is light blue with a red tracer stripe. There should be one going to the radio for its lighting, and that one is convenient to re-use or tap into.

[Calfdemon]

Here is a picture of the 3 prong plug (below my finger and right above the ignition). I have 3 wires plugged into mine:


And here is the light blue wire in my dash harness where I attached additional gauge lights to it... You cannot see the stripe on it, but it is the only light blue wire in the truck wiring harness that is this color. I believe the previous poster is correct in saying it is a red stripe.. Sounds right. So you should easily be able to spot it wherever you are looking. Again, they used this color scheme for all the dash lighting including radio and cigarette lighter. So just tap into it wherever you find it and it will control your gauge lighting.