I've got aftermarket (VDO) gauges in my dash that are not working properly. Anyone familiar with my car knows there could be a million reasons for this, but I wanted to rule one thing out. All gauges are aftermarket and all state that they are designed to run on 12V. For that reason, I did not reinstall the constant voltage regulator. Can anyone confirm that's the right way to do it? I've got most of them running off switched power (hot when on ACC or ON).

 

I am assuming you pulled the power from 12v source? If you did pull from 12v then the next place I'd check is the grounds. ground to the chassis, not the cluster.

 

Most modern gauges have built-in voltage regulation so you don't need the old constant voltage gauge regulator. It would cause problems. Since they all are not working correctly, I assume you wired all the + terminals together and then to the accessory point on the ignition switch. If you used the positive wire that use to go to the voltage regulator, this wire goes through a 12 pin connector. Make sure it is good. Probably the most likely is the ground. You may want to wire them all together and then take them to a good chassis ground and not the back of the dash. The dash can rust up and cause intermittent grounding

 

Thanks - I'll pull the dash out this weekend and see what find. Appreciate the tips.

 

Unfortunately, no luck. I pulled it all out and rewired a bunch of it. I wired all the grounds together and screwed it solidly into a brace under the dash. No change in the gauges' operation. I'll keep noodling away at it.....

 

what are the gauges doing and not doing?

 

The one that's really giving me problems is the speedo. It works fine when I'm driving slow, but if I drive fast it starts jumping around (or just goes dead). I'm running it off a Hall Effect sensor on my driveshaft, which seems to be fine. The other thing is it's MUCH more sensitive with the headlights on, which makes me think it's an electrical issue (as opposed to a defective sensor).