I have no idea where this is coming from, but after I wired up some Auto Meter gauges (none of which have anything to do with the electrical system, other than tapping in the power, and I have their power sources unplugged at the moment), whenever I turn the key to On (not even trying to crank it), it makes a continuous rapid clicking sound & the cluster lights blink in time with the clicking. When I try to crank it, it stops & has no starter clicking.

It cranked no problem before I wired in the gauges, and I haven't even tapped into the ignition system, they've all been plugged into the fuse box via a fuse tap. So I don't think the issues have to do with the gauges themselves.

Anyone have any other ideas or have this happen to them?

D15B7 engine, 1995 Civic DX, manual transmission

 

Ground issue. You should have tapped into the empty power slot at the fuse box. Where did you splice wires into?

 

The gauge power grounds & gauge lighting ground wiring were attatched to a loop & drilled into the metal frame piece behind the driver kick panel.

Both the power & lighting are powered by the fuse panel via a fuse tap. I have them both unplugged right now, because I thought they might be drawing power even with the switches off (basic on/off switches). They are tapped to a continuous power source, rather than an ignition power source. I thought they were draining the battery, so I unplugged them.

For the fuel gauge, I cut out the wire to the cluster (none of my gauges were working, but the dummy lights were, so I just ran a new Autometer fuel gauge & sender), and ran it straight from the Autometer fuel level sender to the appropriate prong on the back of the gauge. The lighting & gauge grounds both go to the metal frame behind the kick panel. The lighting power wire is tapped to the same switch I use for my headlights (power isn't coming from the dimmer switch, and I already had all this set up for the gauge lighting, so I just moved the low beam lights to the same switch for the gauge lighting). The gauge power runs straight from the gauge to a fuse tap into the kick panel fuse box.

They are all grounded using the same screw, so would that be the issue? All their loop rings are touching. Do they need individual ground connections? Or are they even the issue? They aren't tapped to the ignition system at all. I have done NOTHING to the ignition system through this whole process.