synthartist69

Hey guys, I could use your input on this one! All of my gauges have been reading low for over a year now. During the last year they have gotten a little weaker. Example...when I would fill up my gas tank the gauge would go to 3/4, now it goes to slightly above 1/2. The oil pressure reads about 1/4 and the temp is at 1/4. At first I thought the oil pressure and temp were supposed to read in that area so I decided to replace the fuel sending unit in the tank. This did not change anything so then I knew I had a gauge issue. I bought an aftermarket instrument sending unit and installed it. At first all of my gauges stayed topped out, way to high. After driving it for a while they started fluctuating all over the place without warning. At times they are falling to 1/2 but suddenly will tap out at the top again. I am 99% sure I have everything wired correctly as I have had this instrument panel out a dozen times in the past. I also used the wiring diagram to double check my connections.

By the way, I never had fluctuation problems with the gauges until I installed the new unit.

I think that they sent me a bad sending unit. However, I am wondering if maybe I didn't ground it properly. I put the ground wire between the bolt of the unit and it's bracket. Maybe it goes between the bracket and the back of the instrument panel?

Your thoughts would be appreciated!

jgemperline

I would check your regulator. try a 9 volt battery on it and see if 5 volts come out. here is a good read on how to make your own (if your interested). I’m picking one up on my way home today. Try a search. I know I have seen very helpful diagrams posted on the topic.

http://chris66dad.tripod.com/id29.html

Good luck.

TexasAxMan

Absolutely, make your own. Parts are easy to come by and it's an easy project. Plus you have solid state instead of the crappy original.

JStefanick

I made my own based upon the plans above, it is adjustable, which is nice to compensate for the gauges that are reading low. Just build it as he states, you will be in good shape. I have been using it for about 6 months now, with no issue.

However, I would use some mechanical gauges to get an approximate level of where you want to set your voltage output to. For example- my oil pressure gauge, I first verified that I am getting the proper psi's to begin with. I don't want to mask a real issue by artifically inflating the gauge readings with more voltage.

Also, the gas gauge, I made sure it was pretty close to empty, then put in 8 gallons of gas, to know that my gas needle should read right about at a half tank, maybe a smidge more.

The temp gauge, well, it is also going to go along for the ride when you tweak the voltage on the IVR, so know if your coolant and system is in good shape, of course you could test the temperature of the coolant, but since you cant adjust separately for all three gauges, I just more based my readings off the oil and gas readings.

I found that tweaking the IVR to about 5.6 volts put my gauges right about where I think they should be for Idle PSI- half tank of gas and normally heated up motor. I didnt like how low my oil and temp gauges were after the intital tweak, so I upped the voltage to the 5.6v on the IVR, which brought my gas gauge up probably too much.

I just know now that when my gas gauge is about one needle with from the E, I am just about empty, the price I am willing to pay for my gauges to "look" fully operational. If you want truly accurate readings, aftermarket is the way to go, but I just wanted the gauges to give me ballpark readings, if there is a real problem, the gauge will not be helping me out all that much anyhow.

ic237

If your not into soldering or want something thats plug and play you can try the ones I sell.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...%3AMESELX%3AIT

There is no assembly required and its 3 times stronger than the one on that build sheet. It also doesnt get hot and it doesnt go to the full 12v if you lose the ground. It also comes with one year warranty.

Thanks Ivan

synthartist69

Thank you all for the information on the voltage regulator!

synthartist69

Excellent, just bought it!

tx65coupe

I was going to suggest the same things. Its a huge improvement over the regular one.

JStefanick

Either one will do the trick- I built mine before I saw these for sale, same idea, same end result.

Your still going to need to be congnizant of the voltage issues and how tweaking the voltage up or down will affect the reading of the gauge.

I think once you get it installed, you will see what I mean. Tweak the voltage too high, and your going to be getting faulty gas gauge readings (unless of course you compensate with a float adjustment-which is a big pain in the butt), but the oil and temp might look good.

Tweak the voltage until you find a good happy point you can live with- and you shouldnt have to spend that $30 bucks or so on a crappy repro IVR again!