I have 1980 ford f150 with with temperature and oil pressure gauges. Occasionally these two gauges and fuel gauge will all indicate high at same time. I know they are inaccurate due to fuel gauge reading high even with many miles on tank of gas at time. After some time, they will return to normal. Anyone have idea what would cause this situation? Any ideas would be welcome.

 

Its the cluster voltage regulator its on the back side of your cluster above the speedometer its a little silver box sometimes they read high and sometimes low i went to the junk yard and got a hand full and started putting them in one at a time till got the most accurate readings mine read to low as far as gas oil and temprature readings were ford has a problem with these things to bad they didnt think of a better system for these gauges they would be a lot more accruate and ppl wouldnt have to put after market gauges in there trucks i personally like the the stock gauges including the stock tach set up i just got a new cluster with all the needles still bright trasnparent orange for my truck hard to find from what i can see most all fade out to yellow for some reason these ones havent yet hopefully they stay that way armoral also helps in the apperence of the gauges if they are dull black spray a bit on them let them sit dont wipe them off or it will wipe the white paint off the faces of the gauges i learned that the hard way spray some on your lens while you have it apart inside and out and it will make it look crystal clear once again and help hide scratchs but that seems to be your problem that voltage regualtor and dont bother buying a new one from napa for 30 dollars i did and it was worse then the one that was in it already your best bet is to go a junk yard and start pulling them off anything you can find vans trucks and broncos all use the same one good luck

 

Thanks for the information - I appreciate receving your advice on not purchasing a new one and going to salvage yard instead. There are several salvage yards near me and I'll be visiting them this weekend. Thanks again

 

no problem good luck in your search best way to see which one works best for you is know how much gas your tanks hold probly 15 or 20 gallons when i have 5 gallons in my tank its and quater tank of gas put one in till it reads that and stays there then start the truck run around the block or let it sit there and runa nd throttle it and keep it reved not super high just 2000 rpms or so i odnt know if you have the the stock tach in the middle of your lcuster or not i do so how i know where it tachs at if you dont have a tach let me know i have a few extreas i pulled from the junk yards and they work cause i tested them on my cluster when i had it apart anyway do that because sometimes when you sut have th key on and power tot he guages they work ok but as soon as you start and run it and get power to the cluster voltage regulator if they are messed up will start acting funny agin thats how i found the best one that works for me and it has seem to been doing good readings seem to be consistent good luck again