D150 wiring issues, help!

-

dirty white boy

50 yr old Juvenal delinquent
Joined
Dec 15, 2012
Messages
2,308
Reaction score
1,849
Location
stoneville n.c.
my fuel gauge and temp gauge only reading about 1/8 of what thay should! issue comes and gose, gauge respond fine 95% of the time! i dont like it and feel issue needs resolved before it becomes a bigger issue! ol truck ant been messed with much, only couple places wiring been opened from factory wraping! also every now and then motor run like it ant getting good voltage to ignition, but same as gauges just dose it enuff to want fix it! any body have similer issues??? any idea where or what to look at?? bulk head connectors are clean and in good shape!
 
Extra braded ground strap from engine block to fire wall. Clean battery posts. Clean ground cable where it bolts to engine block.

Good Grounds for starters.

Now go into the fuse block in the glove box and when the gauges are acting up take your fingers and feel for heat at each fuse. Take the fuses out one at a time and polish up the ends of them with a scotch brite pad, same with the U shaped fuse holders. If you have one warm or hot fuse that is probably your problem.

Funny you should ask, was into my '76 D100 wiring this morining for a little back feed to one turn indicator light.

Traced out the wiring, then went to the fuse block and found a warm fuse, polished it up and put in a new right front Turn Signal Bulb.

All better now, good to go again !
 
my fuel gauge and temp gauge only reading about 1/8 of what thay should! issue comes and gose, gauge respond fine 95% of the time! i dont like it and feel issue needs resolved before it becomes a bigger issue! ol truck ant been messed with much, only couple places wiring been opened from factory wraping! also every now and then motor run like it ant getting good voltage to ignition, but same as gauges just dose it enuff to want fix it! any body have similer issues??? any idea where or what to look at?? bulk head connectors are clean and in good shape!
You didn't state what year you're working with, but, for most years, I'd start by getting a new IVR.....an electronic one. They're relatively cheap and can cure a whole host of gauge problems.
 
You didn't state what year you're working with, but, for most years, I'd start by getting a new IVR.....an electronic one. They're relatively cheap and can cure a whole host of gauge problems.
1980 model,slant6 833od...what is a IVR??
 
Instrument Voltage Regulator. It's a 1/2 " X 1 1/4" metal box that plugs into the back of the instrument cluster.
 
Also these trucks are plagued by some of the same issues as A bodies, my son has an 80 s/b utiline he had some electrical issues which came back to poor / burnt connections at the ammeter in the top left corner of the dash reach up behind there and check that the studs on the back are not getting hot.
 
Also these trucks are plagued by some of the same issues as A bodies, my son has an 80 s/b utiline he had some electrical issues which came back to poor / burnt connections at the ammeter in the top left corner of the dash reach up behind there and check that the studs on the back are not getting hot.
one the first things i checked, its fine!
 
Check the harness under the hood. There will be a place where rear and front connect. they clip together. I had a break inside the plastic.
 
Could be failing contacts in ignition switch too. Manually operated switches are always suspect. It has a connector below the column that has been known to overheat and degrade connections also. Wait for a intermittent fault to reveal itself or start throwing parts at it? Logical diagnosis?
If everything that gets its power through the ignition switch is weak at times,,, are the always hot circuits always full on?, Headlights, brake lights, never weak? If all electrical is weak at the same times, the fault is in the root current, i.e. voltage regulator, battery connections, fusible link, bulkhead, amp gauge, weld splice.
In reference to above post, park lamp circuit feedback to a turn indicator is always a ground fault at that right or left front park/turn socket. It can be the bulb base contact to socket interior wall. More often a loose ground wire at radiator support.
 
it was the IVR, took one off one my parts cars and gauges back to normal,..all sept amp gauge,..its getting hotter than hell now, post spinning in gauge! fixing to bypass that!!!
 
Yup, the ammeter in those plastic housings can be a problem. Many of the housings I've removed over the years were melted around the ammeter posts due to overheating from one reason or another. Mostly loose connections, but, sometimes it was because of too much draw on the system due to added accessories, or, too high powered an alternator installed. Whenever I have those clusters apart, I always solder the threaded post to the buss bar, then make sure the connections are clean and tight.
 
Used to see this, all the time, back in the 70-80's, my "parts store days." Winches, snow plow lifts, big *** off road lights. Dual batteries, campers. Melted ammeters.

This even started to happen on my 70 RR 440-6. I had the cluster out, it was built for a "tic tok tach" which never got fixed, and I guess I was putting the mechanical tach in, big Jones-Motrola in the original tach hole. Ammeter was starting to melt the cluster. Also in that car, the bulkhead connector got damaged from heat. I drilled through it and ran larger wire straight through.

I was then (and am now) a radio amateur and at some points ran some radio gear in the car, as well as a pair of 100W 4537 aircraft landing lights. THOSE were AWESOME in their day.

Terrible old faded photo, about 74. By then I had swapped a 340 into the car

70RR.jpg
 
Yeah, I saw plenty of high powered sound systems cook those dashes too.
 
ant got nothing extra wired up on truck but soon as i find happyness with the wiring id like to hook up a basic radio!
 
A basic radio will be no problem. They don't draw much juice. All it takes is a loose wire on the ammeter post and it'll start to arc, overheat, and melt the housing. It's hard to say for certain which came first. It's kind of the chicken and the egg argument........was it a loose wire that caused the overheating/melting, or, did it overheat a bit causing the wire to loosen. With plastic housings it could be either way. With my '78 Powerwagon, I use the '72-3 pickup housing, which is pot metal. No problem with those melting or warping.
 
The one on the left looks like one of the warning lights. What kind of connector is on the right wire? I'd have to look to see if I have a wiring diagram that year.
 
its a push on connector for like a stud comes outta harness that runs to fuse box, the one on left come from plug behind ashtray...
 
believe the single dark green gonna be cig lighter, its listed on wiring diagram as 16DG, still study'in on the white an yellow wired plug??
 
-
Back
Top