Does anyone know where I can get replacement dash gauges that aren't $75 or more each? I found some, but man, I can't see spending that much per gauge.

 

JY or FTE WTB add section, someone will chime in, that has them...I might even be me depending on what you need. Speaking of that, what do you need, the standard 5 set up? Speedo, OP, Temp, Alt, fuel?

 

I want to check my sending unit first, but its alt, oil, and water. probably a wiring issue, anyone able to tell me where to find them?

 

X2 on ck sending unit, wiring, printed circuit board and your VR. New replacement gauges for cheap...yea right. Good luck with that.

Ck the vendor list here. Parts Vendors & Resources https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...l#post14955940

 

I have a complete, extra set of gauges which came with the truck. If you end up not finding what you need, let me know and the next time I'm back to Tennessee I'll get 'em out to you Brother.

 

That would be great, I'm curious though, is there a way of testing them, or repairing them, I'm decent at soldering and micro-wiring. or is this just a pipe dream and I need to just replace them?

 

The temp gauge can be tested by grounding the wire at the sending unit. Should go full scale. My gauge started drifting down scale years ago until it finally just stayed at the bottom no matter what. A new sending unit for $9 fixed it.

The oil pressure may be the same, I don't know if the sending unit resistance goes up with increasing pressure or down. If it's down, the gauge should go full scale with the wire grounded. Mine has always worked.

My Amp gauge just barely moves, it's driven by a shunt located in the harness from the starter relay to the alternator. It didn't used to work and here's where I can introduce my favorite snake oil.

I regularly use De-Oxit on suspect connections. In the case of my instrument panel, I hit every single connection on it. I only use a very small amount and lightly wipe each contact then cycle what ever connects to it to clean the corrosion. This included the lights and the main connector.

In the case of the gauges, I put a drop on the threaded post then loosened/tightened the nuts to make better connections. The results are that the gas gauge reads higher, there may have been no change on the oil or temp 'cause I wasn't looking at them that critically but the Amp gauge now reacts although it never moves more than a needles width.

I also hit the rheostat on the headlight switch since I measured 11.5 volts at the dash with the **** fully CCW and it flicked badly when rotating it. I now get battery voltage at full CCW and a smooth drop as I rotate it.

It's also possible the the CVU or constant voltage unit isn't working. It drops the battery voltage down to a stable, known level somewhere around 5 volts. With it not working, you'll have no gauges or obviously wrong readings. A bad or missing ground will do the same thing.

 

If your going through the trouble of clean the contacts, coat them with some white grease or silicon dielectric grease (or both if your handy with the lube).

Works best if the copper is still bright and not covered in a furry corrosion...

If your handy with the soldering iron, you might want to upgrade the gauges to the '90's era gauges! Fun times with JB weld, hot glue, and soldering fine coil wire!

The Back shows how I added a ground to each gauge. And the Voltage Regulator is bypassed to allow full voltage though instead of the 5 volts.

The Front shows the dremeled faces and pieced together. Had to make light dams or the faces got washed out.

It was a meticoulously time consuming project, and would not recommend it, or only do the voltmeter. I did it for the new Ohm Fuel Gauge that the EFI fuel tank sending used.

 

yeah, I don't know what the PO did with the gauges, but all but one of the screws that hold it together were missing, and most of the clips that hold the lense to the bezel. Someone had definitely had this cluster apart and screwed with it. even the speedo is funny, it will be dead on at low speeds, then goes haywire at high speeds. I used my GPS to judge it.

 

Referring to the original question seems to me I read somewhere that ALL the four gauges are the same 20-70ohm resistance gauges and that the face lettering E-F for fuel, etc.) was the only real difference - all the gauge really shows is resistance through the sending unit. If that is so, you could probably do the ground-to-test on all of them. Like I say, I only read this and have not tested it.