Hi Lawrence, I just found your video. I'm in the UK and own a 73 Scamp 225 with no fuel or temp, this video was absolutely brilliant - well explained and easy for an electrical novice like me to understand. Top work sir 👍😉👍
Thanks so much! Glad you found it useful. When I found out it was just a bad connection, I wondered whether I should even bother to post. I forgot all about the Scamp, but my uncle had a Scamp long ago. If both gauges are out, could be the voltage limiter on back of the panel, they do go bad on occasion. Thanks again for commenting.
All my gauges worked except for my temperature gauge on my 1979 Dodge d100. Like your valiant, my instrument panel had some minor corrosion at the gauge stems. I cleaned them and now have a working temperature gauge. I can't thank you enough!
I've had that happen too. Those gauges just 'press' into those clips so the stud contacts the copper clips. I would upgrade to one of the Real Time Engineering voltage limiters. I had some gauges burn up before because the contacts in that mechanical limiter stuck.
Indeed. At 200K I've replaced almost everything at least once but the original engine and transmission keep chugging along. The sweet spot for these cars was about 1968-73, where you had a lot of the safety features like shoulder belts and collapsible steering column but before they started loading up the engine bay with failure-prone emissions-control stuff, npt to mention injectors, electronics and the dreaded "check engine" light. And thanks to the hot rod guys most of the parts are still available - reproduction speedometers, dashpads, even body panels. Thanks for commenting.
My 73 Dart has the opposite problem. It pegs out at the upper end after start up and when the engine gets hot it backs down just a little. Is that the limiter causing that? My gas tank is out of the car so that gauge isn’t operating at tge moment. Im restoring the car.
Limiters do often go bad and that will peg the meter, but it's difficult to understand why the reading would be lower when the engine heats up. Your symptoms sound more like a bad sensor. You could test the limiter by connecting a turn signal bulb between the limiter output (where it is connected to the gauges) and ground. If limiter is working the bulb should blink on and off. If you can get an ohmmeter, measure the resistance between the disconnected sensor contact and ground, as I did in the video, but comparing a hot and cold engine. If I recall correctly, mine was 200 ohms cold (check the video). if the sensor is working correctly, the resistance should be much lower when the engine it hot. I'll try to get a reading on a hot engine next few days if I get a chance. Thanks for commenting.
I did check the voltage at the sender connector with the ignition turned to ON. I got full battery voltage and not the fluctuating 5V average I should get, similar to what you were demonstrating in the video. Seems like it's telling me the limiter is bad.
I think you might not have the original instrument cluster in your car. If it is a 1973 model year car, the instrument cluster should only have one circular indicator to the right of the headlight switch. Yours has two. I believe that it was not until 1975 that the instrument panel had two indicators, so you might want to check that out. If you do have the wrong instrument cluster in your car, its pretty easy to re-install the correct one. They're easy to find at the salvage yard. Then all your dash wiring will be correct. Maybe its not important to you, but I have a 1974 Duster that I've corrected all the mistakes in the dash and the rest of the wiring in the car. Another factor to consider if you do have the wrong dash: The odometer will be wrong, and will show the mileage of the car it was removed from, not your car's actual mileage. If it were me, I'd find a correct cluster for my car, then completely rebuild it back to stock specifications. I would however install a solid state voltage limiter in the rear of the printed circuit board. This vastly improves the reliability and durability of the instrument panel. Good luck with your project!
You are correct! I had forgotten but looking back at my records I see that I did replace just the front face of the instrument panel with a salvaged one in 1999 because about half of the simulated wood veneer had flaked off. So that is why you can see the blue back of the panel through the hole instead of a warning light. (Probably a seat belt warning light as mine instead has a buzzer that goes off if you try to drive with no seat belt.) As for the odometer, I replaced the speedometer twice with salvaged ones when the bearing wore out, only to have them both fail as well, so I finally bought a reproduction speedo from Year One. The old ones, I used to take the odometer apart and adjust the mileage to the correct value but with the reproduction I concluded that was impossible so it's now reading around 00850 which is not too far from the truth as the car was just 2500 miles short of 200K when I put it in. Here on the East coast it's rare to find anything in salvage yards earlier than about 1990, however I still have a bunch of salvaged panels from ebay so I will check whether any of them have the correct 1-hole front (if I can find them). Thanks for commenting.
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Hi Lawrence, I just found your video. I'm in the UK and own a 73 Scamp 225 with no fuel or temp, this video was absolutely brilliant - well explained and easy for an electrical novice like me to understand. Top work sir 👍😉👍
Thanks so much! Glad you found it useful. When I found out it was just a bad connection, I wondered whether I should even bother to post. I forgot all about the Scamp, but my uncle had a Scamp long ago. If both gauges are out, could be the voltage limiter on back of the panel, they do go bad on occasion. Thanks again for commenting.
Have a 74 Swinger 225 with no temp. So glad I found your advice. Thank you Thank you!
Excellent step by step troubleshooting and fix video. I have the exact same problem. Now I know what to check on my 72 Dart Swinger. Thanks!
All my gauges worked except for my temperature gauge on my 1979 Dodge d100. Like your valiant, my instrument panel had some minor corrosion at the gauge stems. I cleaned them and now have a working temperature gauge. I can't thank you enough!
Great. Glad you found it helpful. Funny how it can make a connection for 40 years and then suddenly lose contact. Thanks for commenting.
@@quetzal4042 and like yours, very little corrosion.
Thank you so much Lawrence. You explained it so well!
I'm trying to repait the temp gauge since the wire burnt up. What metal did they use to coil it?
I've had that happen too. Those gauges just 'press' into those clips so the stud contacts the copper clips. I would upgrade to one of the Real Time Engineering voltage limiters. I had some gauges burn up before because the contacts in that mechanical limiter stuck.
Very Helpful
Thanks
Glad you found it helpful. Thanks for commenting.
what a wonderful car
Indeed. At 200K I've replaced almost everything at least once but the original engine and transmission keep chugging along. The sweet spot for these cars was about 1968-73, where you had a lot of the safety features like shoulder belts and collapsible steering column but before they started loading up the engine bay with failure-prone emissions-control stuff, npt to mention injectors, electronics and the dreaded "check engine" light. And thanks to the hot rod guys most of the parts are still available - reproduction speedometers, dashpads, even body panels. Thanks for commenting.
My 73 Dart has the opposite problem. It pegs out at the upper end after start up and when the engine gets hot it backs down just a little. Is that the limiter causing that? My gas tank is out of the car so that gauge isn’t operating at tge moment. Im restoring the car.
Limiters do often go bad and that will peg the meter, but it's difficult to understand why the reading would be lower when the engine heats up. Your symptoms sound more like a bad sensor. You could test the limiter by connecting a turn signal bulb between the limiter output (where it is connected to the gauges) and ground. If limiter is working the bulb should blink on and off. If you can get an ohmmeter, measure the resistance between the disconnected sensor contact and ground, as I did in the video, but comparing a hot and cold engine. If I recall correctly, mine was 200 ohms cold (check the video). if the sensor is working correctly, the resistance should be much lower when the engine it hot. I'll try to get a reading on a hot engine next few days if I get a chance. Thanks for commenting.
I forgot to tell you that was a wonderful video. I learned a lot.
I did check the voltage at the sender connector with the ignition turned to ON. I got full battery voltage and not the fluctuating 5V average I should get, similar to what you were demonstrating in the video. Seems like it's telling me the limiter is bad.
@@davestarkey7519 Yeah seems it pretty much has to be the limiter. Plenty of solid state reproduction limiters available now, but not cheap.
Or how many ohms does a working theme gauge read?
I measured 2 fuel gauges and 2 temperature gauges.
Fuel gauges:
12.5 ohms
12.6 ohms
Temp gauges:
12.3 ohms
14.9 ohms
Thank you!! ,I'm going to add nichrome wire to recoil the temp guage and hopefully I'm able to fix it :)
I think you might not have the original instrument cluster in your car. If it is a 1973 model year car, the instrument cluster should only have one circular indicator to the right of the headlight switch. Yours has two. I believe that it was not until 1975 that the instrument panel had two indicators, so you might want to check that out. If you do have the wrong instrument cluster in your car, its pretty easy to re-install the correct one. They're easy to find at the salvage yard. Then all your dash wiring will be correct. Maybe its not important to you, but I have a 1974 Duster that I've corrected all the mistakes in the dash and the rest of the wiring in the car. Another factor to consider if you do have the wrong dash: The odometer will be wrong, and will show the mileage of the car it was removed from, not your car's actual mileage. If it were me, I'd find a correct cluster for my car, then completely rebuild it back to stock specifications. I would however install a solid state voltage limiter in the rear of the printed circuit board. This vastly improves the reliability and durability of the instrument panel. Good luck with your project!
You are correct! I had forgotten but looking back at my records I see that I did replace just the front face of the instrument panel with a salvaged one in 1999 because about half of the simulated wood veneer had flaked off. So that is why you can see the blue back of the panel through the hole instead of a warning light. (Probably a seat belt warning light as mine instead has a buzzer that goes off if you try to drive with no seat belt.) As for the odometer, I replaced the speedometer twice with salvaged ones when the bearing wore out, only to have them both fail as well, so I finally bought a reproduction speedo from Year One. The old ones, I used to take the odometer apart and adjust the mileage to the correct value but with the reproduction I concluded that was impossible so it's now reading around 00850 which is not too far from the truth as the car was just 2500 miles short of 200K when I put it in. Here on the East coast it's rare to find anything in salvage yards earlier than about 1990, however I still have a bunch of salvaged panels from ebay so I will check whether any of them have the correct 1-hole front (if I can find them). Thanks for commenting.
Have to try this on my wonky temp and volt gauge
Oxidation is a terrible thing. Thanks for commenting.
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