Julie,
I put some pics of my truck and guages on the album page would it be possible for you to look at them and tell me if the guages are converted to 12 volts allready or not. I can't figure out how to post pics here in this thread yet. The pics are on the 3rd or 4th page under lbrauer.

Thanks
Larry

 

I don't see any gauge pictures but you have a very nice truck. I am always a little jealous when I see one all in one piece. You have a note about it backfiring at 40 mph, probably troubles in your vacum advance if you have the stock 239 flathead, check your tube connection to your distributor or maybe it needs lube inside the distributor. Good place to start.

 

Hi Larry,

Yes they have been converted for 12 volt use. That little sugar cube size thingamabobbie on the left is a voltage reducer.

In order to wire the gauges in normally, you would run power from the "ACC" post of the ignition switch, to one of the gauge posts that is under the metal shunt - normally it was the "Temp" gauge.

The shunt supplies power to the other two (oil, gas) gauges. Then on each gauge, the stud that is not attached to the shunt is connected to a wire that travels out to each corresponding sending unit. See the picture below showing the shunt connection. These are configured for the OEM 6 Volt set up and still has the original 6 volt curcuit breakers installed to the left. Yours are long gone. (which means you have some other place your power is being distributed out.)



On your particular cluster (lower picture), the metal shunt has been removed and is substituted with bridge wires (black). You would run power in (from either a fuse block that is switched on with the ignition switch or from the "ACC" post of the ignition switch with an inline fuse holder - 3A) where the cut red wire is on the little cube, leave the bridge wires in place, and run the wires out to the sending units from the opposite studs on the gauges - on your's they have the cut orange wires (and one white one).



For a 12 gauge conversion, you do not need to make adjustments to the ammmeter. It is an induction loop sensor that will work with either 6V Pos Ground or 12V Neg Ground. For a 12 volt application, the wire running through that loop should run from the discharge side through the loop and out the charge side. Your Ammeter appears to have been changed out since it has clean back and coated loop. So it may be one specifically calibrated for 12 volt use - too bad, not really necessary to buy those.

That wire should be the final link from where your power is distributed (probably the "batt" terminal on your ignition switch or a fuse panel) and the large "Batt" terminal on your starter solenoid - where the positive battery cable is also atttached. That wire should be 8 - 10 AWG all the way in from your alternator/generator.

 

thanks Julie for looking into this for me and telling me what I need to do to make the guages work. I know that I could count on you for the right answers I need before I mess something up. Your wonderful information should get me started.

 

" thingamabobbie " I like that one, Julie ! he he he You have a good sense of humor.

 

You have to be kind of careful though.....Whatchamacallits were strictly a Chevrolet product and you can get yourself in a lot of trouble with the puriosts here if you ever call a thingamabobbie a whatchamacallit.

 

yes you are a wealth of info julie .One question I want to convert my gauges as well were wouuld i buy a shunt and a voltage reducer what about the thingamabobbie that sounds pricey lol ...seriously which way would you prefer i convert them
thanx woody

 

Well, those are good questions. You can just make a shunt out of a piece of sheed metal, or you can just use jumper wires to connect the power side of the gauges - 16 AWG. Your stock gauges as they are don't have one?????

There are lots of ways to convert. I have a gallery that shows how to replace the electrical works in the Temp and Oil gauges with new mechanical innerds out of Sunpro gauges. I prefer that to the electric gauges and a few folks here have followed suit and been very happy. But then you would still need to reduce the gas gauge with a small voltage reducer available at any of the resto shops - that is how I have done mine.

I think Sac Vintage Ford, NAPA, or LMC may carry the single cube reducer still.

Here's a link on doing it using the reducers on all the gauges. Note the reducer part number on the photo from C&G:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/8...12-volt-2.html

See my post #19. One caviat to the drawing of the installation is that the wire going through the amp gauge will no longer come from "the 'batt' terminal of the 15 amp circuit breaker" - the circuit breaker will not be used in a 12 volt conversion. That wire will be routed ar I described above in post #3 above/here.

 

So what your saying is that the wires connected to each side of the guages word as shunts and should be taken off and replaced with reducers connected to the screw and the other end to the graunded screw on the guage. The guage needs to be converted in a different way in order to work. I'm confused.

Larry

 

Jules,
In this photo:

I don't see a voltage reducer. Looks like stock set up. Am I missing something?
D

 

Actually, no. The black wire you have on there now interconnecting the gauges is doing the same job that the shunts did originally.

The confusion is coming from the fact that I'm talking to two of you and you have different set ups. Sorry. Let me split you two apart:

Larry, all you need to do with your gauges to make them work with 12 volts is to run 12 volt power (that is switched on and off with the ignition switch) into the little cube where the cut red wire is now.

Leave the black wire where it is (that is supplying 6 volt power from the reducer to each gauge).

Then from each gauge where the orange cut wires are, remove those and replace them with a wire that runs out to your sending unit for that gauge. That's all.


Thus,

12 volt power flows from your power source .....(switched on and off with the ignition switch)

into the little cube .....where the cut red wire is now; it

gets reduced .....to 6 volts; and

runs out through the black wire to each gauge power stud..... (also the gauge cluster dash light - which is the green wire attached to the black wire); then it

goes through the gauge .....and

flows out through the opposite gauge stud .....where the orange cut wires are now.

When you replace those orange cut wires with a wire that connect that stud to the sending unit, the power from the gauge will

run out to your sending unit .....for that gauge (where it gets resisted to provide the correct indication); then it

flows to ground .....(via the engine block for the oil and temp sendig units; or in the case of the gas gauge, through the gas tank to the cab/frame).

For Woody, you do not have the little cube voltage reducer, so you need to install one of those or the three individual ones as I described in the attached link above.


Yeeeeeees! You're right, and Yeeeeeeees, you are!

And if you go back and re read the post you got that from, you will see that what you missed was my statement that it was in fact the shunt as it was supplied and this was the OEM 6 volt configuration!!!!! Post #3, sixth line down, silly!

The voltage reducer is in Larry's gauge cluster - the second photo, on the left side of the gauges - the sugar cube sized thingamabobbie with the cut red wire and the black bridging wire (going to each gauge) attached to it.

Is it Happy Hour yet?

 

Oh, Now I see what you're talking about. heheheheheeeee
Yes it is happy hour, that's what made it jump out at me. Boy am I glad my best customers are distillers.......

 

so this means that all my sending units should be 6 volt to be compatableI am running all 12 volt senders so what now th
anx julie

 

Well the sending units have to be the ones made for the gauges. Not only is voltage critical, but resistance as well. I'm assuming you are talking about the oil and temp, and using the senders that came with the 302. Have you changed out your gas tank or do you still have the stock tank with sending unit in the truck?

At this point I would be tempted to go with the mechanical conversion and just reduce the gas gauge (if you still are using the stock tank and sender). If you have a new tank and sending unit, your kind of screwed as far as using the stock gauges. You would have to find a sender for it with the same resistances as the stock sender.

See my gallery on mechanical gauge conversion to show how to convert those. They are more reliable anyway.

Give me a few ore specifics and maybe I can come up with a better answer.