hey. I have 66 stang 289 and I cant get my guages to work I have tried replacing the voltage regulator on the back of the instrument panel twice. Both times I did this the gauges would work for a while. But something is causing the regulator to burn out and thus my guages wont work. any ideas on what could be causing the regulator to burn up?

 

It may be time to send it off to someone like this.
http://www.instrumentsrus.com/

I plan to do that at some point when I am tearing down the body and paint.

 

The gauges might be shorting on the gauge housing.
Make sure the nuts are tight that tighten the gauge screw to the housing.
You can test with an Ohm meter for a short from each screw to the housing.

 

After I replaced my dash bezel my gauges died. We tracked it to a bad voltage regulator. I replaced it and they worked a few days then died again. After going through I think 3 of them I found an electronic one. It was about twice the cost, I think $50+ plus shipping. It has been in for about a year now and the gauges are all still working.

At least they were a month ago before my damn starter died. Now nothing works since I can't start her.

 

I made solid state one with 5 dollars in parts from Radio Shack.
Here is my "How To" from our website.
http://chris66dad.tripod.com/id29.html
Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Hope it helps you out and it will take about 1 hour to build.
Better than 50 dollars for and original that will fail...

 

My brother in law said his Dad had done the Radio Shack homemade $5 unit. He said it worked great but we could not find any instructions on how to do it.

 

Wonder if using a little heat sink compound / paste at least under the regulator would be beneficial. Supposedly available at Radio Shack is

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/cpu/char/coolCompound-c.html


Norm

 

Thanks Norm. Good catch!
I did put a little dab of the white dielectric grease on it. I forgot to add the picture showing it. I will update that today.
Ron