Ok, so I'm a newb at wiring and need some help so that I don't completely fry the entire electrical system in my car.

I bought two automotive switches from radio shack. They have a ground, acc, and 12v. I don't smoke, so I have an idea of removing the cigarette lighter from my car.

Say that I want to hook up my autometer gauge lights to a toggle switch. Could I run the accessories wire from the cigarette lighter to a switch and then a wire from the switch to the gauge? Since the lighter is already a 12v source, I think this could work.

 

i think it should be like this...

-ground on switch to chassis or splice ground
-12v on switch to power on lighter
-acc on switch to gauge.

if you do it like that, the gauge would only turn on if you hit the switch while the car is in the "on" position.

if you dont know how to remove the lighter, run a power wire into one of the spare fuses in the fuse box.

 

Sounds good.

I have another question. Can you hook up two gauge lights to that one switch?

Last question. I know that all three guages need ground wires. Could you combine all the ground wires together into one ground wire instead of having 5 different wires going to the same place?

 

yes, you can hook up 2 gauge lights to that one switch, the lights won't be drawing that much current to exceed the switch's limit. and yes, you can use common a ground.