Anyone know where I can get a fuse box for a 68? Or, can I just replace the box with inline fuses for each wire?

 

Wish I knew. I have been looking for a replacement fuse block for my 69. Painless has sort of a generic swap out.

 

Well, here's the story. Driving along during the day when my temp, fuel, ammeter, and oil pressure gauges go dead. Checked fuse, fuse good, but replaced it anyway with a new one. Gauges come back to life. Make a stop, start up again, same gauges dead again. Checked fuse and it's OK. Instrument cluster lights and everything else works so I assume it's not a cluster grounding issue. Can't get those gauges resurrected. Could be a broken wire in the harness, or possessed, or corrosion where the wiring is connected to the back of the fuse box???

 

Before I would change any thing out I would troubleshoot it until you find the actual cause of the problem but if you want to change the box I would recommend changing the whole under dash harness, not just the box. The fuse boxes are more or less hard wired to the harness and not easy to change.

 

Gonna do the troubleshooting ritual this weekend.

 

I bet it is the instrument voltage regulator.
You should see a pulsating 6 volts at the sensor. You can also short the wire to ground at the sensor for a moment and the gauge should go full scale.
If either test fails, replace the regulator with a solid state one to solve the problem.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ford-...Q5fAccessories

 

I just replaced it with a repro same type. Hope it's not that!

 

My original one was dead and I installed a repo unit and it died shortly afterwards. I ended up making a solid state one before the Ebay one came out and it solved the problem.
Remove the wire off the the water temp sender on your manifold and ground the wire with someone watching the gauge and the key on. If the instrument voltage regulator is good the gauge will go full scale. If it is bad it will stay at the bottom of the gauge or close to it. DO NOT KEEP IT GROUNDED FOR TOO LONG BECAUSE IT CAN DAMAGE YOUR GAUGE!
The repo units are known for being bad...

 

My cluster lights work, and the headlight switch (which is also new) dims and brightens the cluster lights like it should. If the CVR was bad, would the cluster lights still work? The cluster lights, even when at their brightest, are not as bright as a modern car but I'm told that is the case with the older cars???

 

Those repro instrument cluster voltage regulators suck to say the least. I have had three of them and the only one I have that works is my original one. I strongly suggest buying of making and electronic solid state one.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Ford-...Q5fAccessories

The cluster lights are independent of the ICVR. Yeah they aren't really as bright as modern cars lights.