Ok so I bought a 68 coupe a couple of weeks ago. The guy I bought it from said it needed a regulator for the gauge cluster. All gauges (temp, Fuel) went to full and my oil and volts didn't do anything when the car was on. So I get the regulator in and take the gauges out. Here's the kicker, the guy that owned the car car before me must have done this. The connections for the regulator were plugged together beats me how it didnt fry somethin but it didn't. So anyways I change the regulator and plug it in right but now no guages work. Do you guys think that the regulator wires being plugged together burnt my gauges up? Can anyone recommend an affordable replacement cluster that would work in my car on the stock harness. For the mean time I just threw in some aftermarkets but I would really like to have the cluster workin. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Little help please...

 

Hey Wickid,

I'll try to help. I've got 70', but it should be all the same.

First you should do is to buy a multimeter to have a proper tool to work with. Then try to find one by one what is wrong.

Fristly, check if you have the voltage comming to the regulator. Set the meter to volts,touch the ground with one lead (any metal part attached to the bodywork will be grounded - negative pole) and the connection of the regulator with second lead (one of them should have +12 after turning the ingnition).
Then, put the regulator in place and check if you have +5V on the other connection
Then, check if you have +5V on one of connections the gauges that don't work. If you have +5V there, either gauge or sender unit is down.

Anyway I attach a diagram with a bit of descritption. It you won't find the cause following the above, you have to play Sherlock Holmes, multimeter will help you.


[IMG]local://upfiles/19579/9B51966DC5744F9CB41F08EA8B147E5F.jpg[/IMG]

 

Thanks for the help I'll give it a shot. If the wires to the regulator were hooked together then the gauges would be gettin a full 12v all the time right?

 

Yep, 12V all the time, that's why they were going mad

 

Would that burn them up over a period of time? I have no idea how long it was that way before I got the car. Seems to me though 12v runnin to a 5v guage over time would kill it.

 

Not necessarily. Remember that technically the gauges of that type are very simple. A gauge is simply a coil which gets hot when conducting current, the coil heats a bimetal strip which moves the needle, that's it.
If they moved before putting the regulator, they should be fine. With 12V they went out of scale, but should not be damaged. You can check that out easily, take the inspected gauge out and put 5V on the connections, it should go to max.
On the other hand, maybe someone plumbed the regulator for a reason. Try to inspect the gauges and senders if the're not replaced with some other, not original, working with different voltage.

 

Ok on the new regulator I got 12v coming in and 12v coming out on the posts is this correct?

 

Anyone? I was thinking it should be 5v.

 

Wickid,

Did you get any help on this. My 66 did a similar problem. Some gauges worked others didn't. One day the opposite gauges started to work that didn't IE gas and now my oil pressure gauge is pinned to the high side before it was fine.

I too was told it was in the regualtor. Someone said take a 12v light and pull the line to the sending unit off. Place light in series and the light should go on in a strobe fashion. I will be trying this not sure if it will tell me anything but it should tell me if there is voltage to the sending unit. Yes you could use a voltmeter but if the signal is pulsed you may not get a good reading the light will give you a visual.

Trying this in near future. Tell us if you resolved your issue.

Slyder