What would happen if I ran 12 volts through my stock gauges in my instrument cluster on my 55 F100?

I was just curious, because when I bought my truck along time ago, that's what I had, a 12 volt system, and no problems.

Except the damn horns were pretty loud.

I know some places sold individual gauges made for my cluster for my truck (6 volt) that were converted to 12 volts.

I wonder if they were converted to 12 volt gauges.

Is there a way to find out?

 

Most of the gauges will work just fine at 12V neg grnd, since they are not voltage dependent. The instrument lights might be a tad bright and have a short lifespan unless you change them to their 12V equivilent. If you do a search there have been several threads discussing which instruments etc will work w/12V and how to fix any that won't. Just don't use one of those old fashioned wire wound dropping resistors, they're a fire waiting to happen. (saw a car going up in smoke on the interstate yesterday, not a pretty sight.)