my gas oil press and temp gauges are not working so i put in a new voltage regulator and that one worked one time. when i started the car the next time i heard a little pop and then nothing. i kinda figured being all three guages where not working agian that i blew the regulator so i tried another one and nothing what so ever. i did a little research and then i figured that since there was a common ground that it was the culprit. i then pulled the dash and looked at the wires seen no obvious breaks or tears so i read them out. the meter i have reads if you have a short as well as other other jazz they normaly come with. i read a few wires out and they all have a short reading in them. but when i read the resitance i get good reads. im curious one if there is a normal problem with the regulators. and as well if im reading a short but good resitance if maybe the whole dash wire harnes is bad. im not to good at wire reading so if some one can help me out it would be nice

 

99% of the time the gauges do not go bad.
A couple of questions.
1. What year is the car? What kind of shape is the fuse panel and the wiring coming into in?

2. Is this a relatively virgin factory wiring harness or has it been cobbled together over the years? Does it have a lot of aftermarket butt connectors etc? If it does then that makes the job of diagnosing the problem infinitly more difficult. If you do have a crappy harness, then I STRONGLY suggest that you rewire it yourself. Use solder, heat-shrink and forget it. Butt connectors will drive you absolutely bat-shiat crazy.

3. Does the wiring harness feel hot when you turn the key on? Feel around under the hood, under the dash, etc. If it is feeling hot, then you do indeed have a short. The wiring should remain cool to the touch. Feel the battery cables also. When you put the voltmeter on the battery what does it read when the car is running? Does it peg out or does it stay around 13V?


4. When you are checking for a short, put your volt/amp meter on the setting to test for continuity. Put one lead on the lead to one of amp gauge and the other to a GOOD ground. It should NOT ring through.


Ford wires most their gauges differently than Brand X. Fords gauges are part of the circuit, (ie. in series) whereas the Chittylays are generally wired in parallel.

Do you have any aftermarket gauges installed? If so, what are they reading? In particular the volt meter. The factory gauges measure amperage not volts, so they are wired completely different.

In my experience, I have had opens much more often than shorts.But if you heard a pop, then you probably do have something shorting out to ground.

Chop the legs off of the elephant and verify one circuit at a time. It is tedious work I know. But get a factory shop manual. Not a Chiltons, but a factory manual with the wiring schematics and go to it. Nobody enjoys electrical gremlins, but it isn't the black magic that many think it is.