Gauge/instrument panel help
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Gauge/instrument panel help
Hey everyone, I am trying to figure out what I need for wiring or cables to go from the sensors to the instrument panel. I bought an oil pressure sensor but no wiring came with it, I also bought a temp sensor and nothing came with that either. I cant seem to find anything online about how you hook these things up. Any help would be great.
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From: Charm City
Hey everyone, I am trying to figure out what I need for wiring or cables to go from the sensors to the instrument panel. I bought an oil pressure sensor but no wiring came with it, I also bought a temp sensor and nothing came with that either. I cant seem to find anything online about how you hook these things up. Any help would be great.
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I wish it were that simple, my fuel level and speedometer gaugse works and that is it.My RPM, oil pressure, temp, and battery gauges do not. Nothing was hooked up because the guy was tired of spending money on all of the repairs. I dont know if maybe a new wiring would make it easier or if there are replacement wires or cables.
Cargo Master
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From: Arcadia, Fla
Are the wires behind the insterment cluster hacked up or under the hood?
The speedo is fully mechanical and if the fuel guage works I'm guessing the cluster is getting power to it.
Which engine your truck have?
The speedo is fully mechanical and if the fuel guage works I'm guessing the cluster is getting power to it.
Which engine your truck have?
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Right now she has a 197 460 c.i w/carb. The truck was originally EFI, so I know most of the wires still there are useless now.
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From: Charm City
I wish it were that simple, my fuel level and speedometer gaugse works and that is it.My RPM, oil pressure, temp, and battery gauges do not. Nothing was hooked up because the guy was tired of spending money on all of the repairs. I dont know if maybe a new wiring would make it easier or if there are replacement wires or cables.
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So it sounds like, at the very least, everything is disconnected under the hood to get a carb'd engine in there. Any chance everything was carefully unplugged and tucked away for a later time or was it just another typical 'tard style hack job? Regardless, even if you got a complete, uncut harness the sensors on the carb'd engine are not going to be correct for cluster. You almost need to put the EFI back into the truck or make some sort of dash cluster that can use whatever sender units that are on the carb'd motor.
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I wish it were that simple, my fuel level and speedometer gaugse works and that is it.My RPM, oil pressure, temp, and battery gauges do not. Nothing was hooked up because the guy was tired of spending money on all of the repairs. I dont know if maybe a new wiring would make it easier or if there are replacement wires or cables.
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The good news is it will work.. the bad news is your going to have to do some tracing of wires. The battery gauge must also be working or else it wont charge. Not sure if you will be able to get the factory tach to be happy with the older ignigion system. Oil and temp are single wire hookups so thats just a matter of tracing the wires from the dash. You'll need to modify the cluster to accept the "oil gauge" input of the 79 unless you are using the "switch" that came on the later truck.
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Sorry but you really must have a rats nest for wires. Doesnt sound like he retained the original charging circuit so I dont think wiring diagrams will help you. Adding aftermarket guages are always an option but IMO look like a$$ when you try and hack into the stock locations.
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From: Charm City
The battery gauge doesn't work at all. As far as the tach and the rest of them go, if I can't get whst is in there to work with the engine sensors, are there universal gauges that will be compatible with efi and carb? If so, then I would just replace the gauges on the panel itself. Is there a certain colored wire to look for, for certain gauges? Thanks for the help so far guys.
Cargo Master
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From: Arcadia, Fla
What engine was in before the swap? I would trace the wires and get the correct year sensors to put on the 460. The cluster doesn't need a ECU for function. Kinda wierd that your fuel guage works and not the voltage guage as the voltage guage works off the cluster power that is tied in with all other guages.
The tach should work fine once you find the correct wire to hook back up to the neg side of the coil and if the original engine was a V8, you would be good to go. Now if is was a 6 cyclinder, then you will have to ground out a slector on the tach.
The tach should work fine once you find the correct wire to hook back up to the neg side of the coil and if the original engine was a V8, you would be good to go. Now if is was a 6 cyclinder, then you will have to ground out a slector on the tach.
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From: Denver Metro Area, CO
I'm pretty sure it's:
White/red stripe = oil pressure
Red/white-stripe = water temperature
Could be reversed from above but I don't think so, I believe that's correct.
Senders should be available at an auto parts store, tell them you have an 87-88-89 (or whenever ford went to EFI on these engines) 460 with a carb & DSII ignition.
Power comes from the ICVR to the gauge, from the gauge to the sending unit on the engine, the sending unit provides a variable resistance to ground. The gauges themselves have got little heat-strips in 'em and heat up depending on how much power they get (which depends on to what degree the sending unit grounds out the connection).
Tachometer I would imagine would be the same, EFI or not. It's basically a wire (probably solid green) to the coil that measures how often it fires along with some other wires for power & backlighting.
Ammeter/voltmeter, this may take some work, save it for last.
The charging system should still work even if the gauge doesn't, I believe there is a shunt on the back of the gauges that provides for that.
White/red stripe = oil pressure
Red/white-stripe = water temperature
Could be reversed from above but I don't think so, I believe that's correct.
Senders should be available at an auto parts store, tell them you have an 87-88-89 (or whenever ford went to EFI on these engines) 460 with a carb & DSII ignition.
Power comes from the ICVR to the gauge, from the gauge to the sending unit on the engine, the sending unit provides a variable resistance to ground. The gauges themselves have got little heat-strips in 'em and heat up depending on how much power they get (which depends on to what degree the sending unit grounds out the connection).
Tachometer I would imagine would be the same, EFI or not. It's basically a wire (probably solid green) to the coil that measures how often it fires along with some other wires for power & backlighting.
Ammeter/voltmeter, this may take some work, save it for last.
The charging system should still work even if the gauge doesn't, I believe there is a shunt on the back of the gauges that provides for that.
Cargo Master
Joined: Mar 2007
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From: Arcadia, Fla
Here's a schematic of the cluster for a 89 F-series.
In 87 when Ford changed the electronics, they did away with the infamous ICVR. The voltage guage is off the cluster's 12V switched line.