checking gauge function

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44070dart

44070dart

How the hell did I get this old..
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How do you check gauge function.. I have a '68 Charger I'm taking the dash out to redo the faces, and need to see if the gauges work. Right now none of them register anything.
 
Do a search, I'm not trynna be mean. There are hundreds of posts on this, ................

You need to rig some test resistors, or use a gas tank sender which you can move and set to a resistance with your meter

This is a photo of an aftermarket gauge tester......just like the one in the service manuals.........and they photoshopped the resistances in yellow

c-3826-jpg-jpg.jpg


What you need and need to do..........Some of this may be different, it has been 40 years since I've screwd with a B Ralley dash cluster, I'm speaking of A bodies, appy if you will

1....Make certain the pc board harness connector pins are tight and undamaged. They are swedged/ riveted, so clean and solder them.

2....Get a solid state IVR and if it plugs into the cluster make certain the connector contacts are clean and continuous. On A bodies, they need to be soldered jumpers to connect to the PC board traces

3....Loosen/ tighten the gauge studs several times to be sure the gauges are making contact.

4....Clusters are poorly grounded by the mounting screws. Find a ground point and solder/ connect a grounding pigtail which you can bolt to the column suppor/ dash frame

5...."Rig" the cluster to a battery, make sure you ground the appropriate point on the cluster. . Apply the appropriate test resistor to ground at the gauge sender terminal, and wait a few seconds for the guage to stabilize. And see if it reads what it should

6....If you have a variable power supply it would be wise to check the gauges at 14V which is what the system "runs" at. If you don't have that, just nose a running vehicle into the garage and use jumper wires to power the cluster off the running vehicle. This will give you the desired 14V

NOTice in the destructions for the tester, that all 2 or 3 gauges read the same with the same resistor at each one. This will give you a "double check" because, say, if the fuel gauge works and the temp is different with same test resistance, you have a problem
 
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My speedo wasn’t working so I took all the gauges to a speedo shop for service. 50 yr old instruments do need lube/cleaning/calibration. They work great now.
 
Check the IVR to see if it's working first, that may be the root of all of the gauges not working. There was a post a short time back about using a solid state IVR with a heat sink that fixed the gauge problem.
 
I'd start out simple assuming the gauges are still in the cluster and everything is still hooked up. With the key off, remove the temp sender wire and attach a jumper wire from it straight to a good ground on the engine. Sit in the drivers seat and turn the ignition switch to the on/run position. See if the temp gauge now moves toward hot. If so, immediately turn the key off (you don't want to peg the gauge all the way to hot). That test will show if the IVR works and if the temp guage works. You can do the same thing with the fuel sender wire and oil pressure wire to test their respective gauges. If you get nothing with these tests, you'll need to test the IVR and the connections on the circuit board in back of the cluster.
 
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