I'd have to ask why? When I have had cars with a shift light, I ignored it and shifted when I needed to, rather than when a light said to. Possibly, if you are learing to drive a manual, a shift light may be an indicator to let you know when to shift, but if you have any driving experience, it is just another idiot light.
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10:06 AM
RotrexFiero Member
Posts: 3692 From: Pittsburgh, PA Registered: Jul 2002
Not that kind of shift light....the larger ones used for racing....When you moving rapidly thru the gears, and trying to watch the road, its too hard to monitor the RPM gauge...I am in the process of installing new gauges to monitor boost, egt, a/f, and watching the tach is very hard and I dont want to over rev the engine.
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11:52 AM
jscott1 Member
Posts: 21676 From: Houston, TX , USA Registered: Dec 2001
Originally posted by RotrexFiero: Has anyone installed a shift light....talking about the after market ones, minus the tachometer? I searched and only found one thread, that was rather limited. I was wondering how they are wired and if they are hard to install.
yes i've put in a couple
they are wired pretty easy, they come with directions. they have 1 wire that goes to the ignition coil, (i splice in to the wire next to the tach filter) 1 positive and 1 negative wire. and some will have a 4th wire that you connect to your dash light circuit. so the light will be dimmer while night driving and you dont get blinded.
where you want to install it will make it hard or easy to install.
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02:33 PM
RotrexFiero Member
Posts: 3692 From: Pittsburgh, PA Registered: Jul 2002
I dont want another tach, mounted looking crazy on top of the dash. Just wanted a small shift light in view that so I dont have to look down and up all the time. It gets dangerous monitoring RPMs and also the road at the same time, especially under acceleration.
From what you describe sounds like a simple install.
Any recommendations for a decent shift light?
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04:22 PM
KaijuSenso Member
Posts: 911 From: Westland, MI Registered: Jan 2007
in all honesty it seems entirely pointless to me to add a shift light. if you know your car, you won't even need to look at the RPM's to know when to shift
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04:24 PM
buddycraigg Member
Posts: 13437 From: kansas city, mo Registered: Jul 2002
Originally posted by KaijuSenso: in all honesty it seems entirely pointless to me to add a shift light. if you know your car, you won't even need to look at the RPM's to know when to shift
you have your opinion
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06:20 PM
RotrexFiero Member
Posts: 3692 From: Pittsburgh, PA Registered: Jul 2002
You are right about knowing your car, but I drive the Fiero as a pleasure car and I make many modifications, including the exhaust, turbo, and boost levels. And so, I cant always tell by the feel or sound the engine is reving at. This is also the reason why many performance drivers use shift lights.
Hey, if you dont need, you dong need it, but at a certain point such things become a necessity. I never thought I would spend the extra money on a brake upgrade, thinking stock would always been fine. Over reving and inadequeate brakes can be problematic.
Hey Zoom88, can you tell me exactly what wire you used from the tach...I have a v6 Fiero. I just want to make the installation easy and quickly, not having to search out wires.
Thanks Happy Holidays
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11:40 AM
pswayne Member
Posts: 1282 From: Lawrenceville, GA USA Registered: Sep 2006
Hmmm... This thread gives me an idea. I'm going to look into re-wiring my existing shift light so that it lights if the engine goes over a certain RPM value, and not when the ECM thinks I ought to shift. Perhaps all that is needed is to tap the sine or cosine value going to the tach meter, and use that to trigger an SCR to turn on the light. A potentiometer could be used to adjust the triggering point to the desired RPM value.
Just finished install 6, yeah 6 of the GlowShift gauges (tinted) and boy they do look great. They appear to function fine, but tomorrow I will fire up the car and test drive it with all the gauges to see if they are accurate. But, hey for the money they look good and work fine. No complaints here....yeah I saw the shift light that GS offers, and I will probably get one.