Hi i have been looking at this site for a few months now and see that there are some knowledgable people on here so i thought id ask you people if you could help me out well here it is i bought a 1984 F250 XLT 2wd 4 speed manual truck with a brand new big block 460 ever since ive had it ive been having guage problems the temp guage and the oil guage i dont thik ever read correctly nor dose the my fuel guage only one that seems to work right is my charge guage i had them working correctly one time i took off the sensor wires and cleaned the crimped them tighter and they seemed to work my oil guage read a little above normal and my temp guage read at half then they started acting up again now the temp guage never gose to half and the oil guage runs a little below half unless when cold its above but not as high as when i had it working right also funny when i accelrate the oil guage and temp guages go down as if im losing more oil pressure and my engine is runing even cooler and it cant be my 460 is new so im sure its making good oil pressure its beging to bother me because i am the type of guy who likes to watch my guages so i now what my engine is doing this is my second ford truck i had a 84 f150 Xl with a 300 inline six that never seemed to do this but that was jsut my wheeling truck this one is my pride and join driving truck so i want it to last any info on this would help? i was told that there is a voltage regulaor for the guages behind the instrument cluster and that ford has a problem with it is this true? any info on this would help thanks steven

 

sorry for my typo's also its a F250 lmao not a F259

 

Yes there is a regulator for the guages mounted on the back of the instrument cluster. it looks like this and cost about $25.00



You will have to take your headlamp **** off using the secret button on the switch, and take the wiper switch **** off using a little hook tool.

 

thanks Dave so that regulator is on the back of the cluster then or is is under any of the guages also what auto shop store would have that napa? cause if so i could get one tomarrow as they are open sundays sooner for me the better i like my truck a lot so i want it tot work right

 

Take the cluster out. If I remember correctly, it's in the upper left corner. Any parts store should have it.

 

ok thanks a bunch ill do that then then let you know how it works thanks again for the pic and the info on it

 

Steven,
No problem.
What I think is funny,is the fact the word Gauges is *spelled wrong* yet it still gets highlighted from the system in place.

 

lol yeah i noticed i was spelling it wrong to i guess i should of paid attention english a bit more and in typing class to i just graduate last year from high school god only knows how

 

i got the new regualtor for my gauges 84 f250 and they where working even worse barley coming on and now they are pegging out so i dont know whats wrong with this thing?? any other thoughts or anyone else whos had these problems maybe has a soluton for one? thinking on going to the local junk yard and finding as mnay of the regulators as ai can and another set og guages to see if that will help ive checked the sensors on the block and they are working and my engine is new and the truck is a xlt with 123,000 orignal miles any help would be apperciated thanks steven

 

If the gauges are pegged it means they are directly connected to a ground source.



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Please everyone,

Once a user has started a topic, FTE would appreciate it if ALL the info including Updates get posted to the original thread.

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Sorry about starting a new one ... I'm new


Gauges: well they peg out when i i rev the truck up.

The oil pressure goes up but when i let it off, the idle makes it drop back down to a little above half.

Could it be that the new regulator is a piece of junk too?

or,

is it just my truck, I dont see why stupid things like this.
I took apart my old regualtor and there isn't much to it, some metal and looks to be a contact points and then a wire wrapped around one of the metal strips in there.

Maybe its my entire instrument cluster?

There's quite a few trucks like mine in the junk yard, so i am gonna go look and get some different parts.... unless someone has an idea what it could be.

 

The oil pressure rising when you rev the engine is pretty normal, although I have never known the factory guages to be that fast. Your fuel guage should be fairly stable just sitting in the driveway. Your temp guage will rise and fall till the thermostat opens and stablizes. If all the guages rise and fall together, then you still have a problem. If it's just your oil pressure guage, then I don't think you have a problem.

 

Well the fgas gauge pegs way past the f mark and the oil guage drops to a little above half when idle then when reved pegs out but at first they barley even worked when i first put the new regualtor in there the temp guage isnt in there at the moment its needle had broke when i was taking it apart i think i hit it so i do need a new one of those ive heard that ford gauges and funky at times but not this bad? i dont see why they would be messed up this truck is super clean and never has seen any abuse fromw aht i can tell really straight and clean i notice when i first start it they go up pretty fast and high this was before i changed the regulator but then dropped off again to almost nothing i also noticed when i pushed on the little button plugs for the regualtor it somewhat made then go up a bit them drop off again its really begging to bother me the truck runs great but i wish my guages would work great along witht he way it runs and drives

 

Is your old regulator intact enough to still use? You can put it or another new one in to see if the regulator you just installed is bad. After you get that sorted out it might be time to go right to the source with water temp and oil pressure. A thermometer and a direct reading pressure gauge will tell you what is really going on with the truck and you can check the instruments against that. Until you have this information you are stuck trying to get the truck to tell you what you think the gauges should be reading rather than what is actually going on. Just a thought...

 

Sounds like the sending unit in the gas tank may be bad. Take the wire off the sending unit and let it hang in the air. The gauge will read all the way to one side(I think full). Then take the sending unit wire and ground it to a good known ground. The gas gauge should swing all the way to the opposite side. If this works, it means the gauge and the wiring are good, and the sending unit is bad.

I am thinking you may have multiple small problems and it's making it look like you have a bigger electrical problem.