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Hi, my new to me 1982 F150 has some issues with the gauges - would a faulty IVR cause the following symptoms, and what would the part number be please?
Fuel gauge - 3/4's with 40 litres of gas, and drops real fast....I've been driving around on under 0 for quite some time now
Oil - inoperable
Water - inoperable
Charge - needle is in the middle, and my external voltmeter shows ~ 14.5v
Not necessarily the IVR. Usually when it goes bad all the gauges work, but they read low or high.
Your fuel gauge; It's very common for the sending units to go bad on these trucks. Also when people replace them they can put the wrong one in the wrong type of tank, the front and rear senders are different. I would run the truck as low as you dare on fuel, and then pull the tank down and pull the sending unit. You can then work the sending unit while watching the gauge on the dash with the key on, engine off, and see if you can figure out what the problem is.
Your temp gauge and oil pressure gauge; First thing to do is test these gauges. Depending on what engine you have, you need to find the temp sensor (it will have a single wire) and the oil pressure sending unit(it will have a single wire also). One will have a red/white wire and the other will have a white/red wire (I can never remember which is which unless I look at a diagram). Find these sending unit wires, take the wire off the sending unit, and with the key on, engine off, touch the wire to a good clean metal spot on the engine. That gauge should swing full scale low or high. Then take the wire off the clean metal spot and let the end of the wire hang in the air touching nothing. The gauge should swing full scale the opposite direction. If both wires pass this test, then the wiring and the gauges are good, there is something wrong with the sending units. Also make sure if someone replaced the sending units, that they did not use teflon tape on the threads. If any sealer is used on the sending unit threads, it has to be used sparingly, otherwise it will interfere with the grounding of the sending unit.
Being new to me I originally thought the truck had a bad drinking problem when the gas gauge went from 3/4 full to 0 in 90kms...so I threw a gas can in the bed and I've been rolling around on less than 0 for a while.
