The cluster is out, you won't believe what I found

[gdizzle]

So got the cluster out 66 dart 270. Wonder why the speedo didnt work? Well apparently it had a major breakdown and exploded? See pics/ . I was hoping I could scavenge pieces from this other cluster from a 71 dart, but I think they are too different. Any ideas?
Also all gauges are dead, now I see that a few of the pins are detached, and few others are loose? Is there a fix for this? help me out. thanks

 

[cudascott]

There's a couple of options for the pins. First is to clean the board and pins solder them back on and solder the base of the loose ones. Second is remove the remaining pins and solder lengths of wire to the board and use an after market connector.

 

[gdizzle]

anything special to clean the board? I have some DeOxit, or ?
Should I solder from the front, or the back?

 

[RedFish]

First of all, If you had only a pin or 3 damaged I would offer to properly repair those for you. There will be very little space on the back side of the board for anything that wouldn't create a short to the housing. Soldering pins to the copper trace on the board is a common DIY practice. The downside, The pin will take copper trace with it, peel it right off the board, next time its pulled. Some owners pay the coin for new reproduction boards. That is the most sensible route if the board you need is reproduced ( not all are ).
One other route to consider... Crimping ring terminals on the few wires that can attach directly to gauge posts ( see amp gauge connections ) is simple enough.
To do the lighting with wires you would need a number of alternative/substitute rubber bulb sockets that have 2 wires. You would connect those supply wires and grounds. In the end, your board only serves to resize the holes for the components.
E-body and a few others never had circuit boards. They are wired pretty much as I've described. Wire color/locations are permanently scribed in those housings.

 

[gdizzle]

thanks for the good info. I tried to solder the pins back, but the pin will not take the solder. so I removed the pins and soldered some telephone wires to each contact. now connecting the telephone wires to the plug, that will take some thought. maybe I can thread the telephone wire through the old pin, crimp it at the base and then just plug it into the existing plug. humm....

 

[RedFish]

I don't think that wire is suited for this application. It's not my car though. Good luck with it.

 

[cudascott]

I don't think that wire is suited for this application. It's not my car though. Good luck with it.

I'm with red on this one, the wire size for this application needs to be at least the size of the harness wires to be safe. Telephone wire is not made to carry much current at all the limiting factor is not the conductor but the insulation. it is your car but
You may want to reconsider using the telephone wire

 

[67Dart273]

thanks for the good info. I tried to solder the pins back, but the pin will not take the solder. so I removed the pins and soldered some telephone wires to each contact. now connecting the telephone wires to the plug, that will take some thought. maybe I can thread the telephone wire through the old pin, crimp it at the base and then just plug it into the existing plug. humm....

You need to scrape / clean get it CLEAN. Get yourself some electrics safe flux. NOT acid. I can never spell it, there's a product call "Nocorrode" made specifically FOR electrics. I suspect it's the same flux that is in electric flux solder (rosin flux)

What exactly are you using for an iron and solder?

 

[gdizzle]

good catch. GOnna remove the tele wire and use 18g instead. see what happens today.
here's assuming the old Voltage limiter is gonna work right..

 

[67Dart273]

I would not assume that. I've repeated this many times. Dash clusters vary, but here is "most" of what was wrong on my 67

1...Broken damaged pins. I elected to solder pigtails to the board traces and use a pair of "Molex" style connectors instead of the original connectors. Just scrape through the board coating and solder to the board

2..Others have advised.....add a ground pigtail

3...On mine, the spring contacts forming the IVR socket were not making contact with the board traces!!! I had to solder jumpers across between

4...Replace the nuts on the gauge studs with "real" nuts. "Work" them loose / tight several times to scrub clean

5..Replace the IVR with a modern solid state one. I bought mine from RTE but their website seems to be MIA some times

In the photo the black wires are the added ground. There are two because one jumpers over to the second board

The blue / white is switched ignition power

This is mainly to show the jumpers from the board to the IVR spring contacts

I don't solder as well as I used to. "Can't see" LOL

 

[gdizzle]

2nd look, it appears I am missing the oil light bulb/holder. With a holder being gone, would this cause any issue with ground or the operation of the other lights? Why is the oil bulb linked to the other cluster light? if one goes on, the ohter would also go on? Pin 2.

Who carries these lamp holders?

p.s. I soldered cables to everything, connected it, and still not getting gauges. I test temp send unit, and giving me 5.3v, consistent no fluctuating. so now replacing voltage limiter. I f I can just get the gas gauge to wake up, I would get a mini chub.

 

[67Dart273]

The oil light should be a separate assembly. On mine, you can see it hanging loose, the black plastic. It is not grounded. it receives switched 12V on one wire, and the other wire goes out to the oil sender, which applies a ground when no pressure.

Use your ohmeter to trace the gauges path. As I said, on mine, the IVR contacts were not making contact with the board traces. The nuts might be loose / corroded. And, the gauges might be bad. "Fire them up" with a 1 1/2 V AA, C, or D cell

A 3V battery (two 1 1/2 V cells) will give you nearly full scale on the gauge

 

[BillGrissom]

Re the speedometer, when I got my 65 Newport, the cable was broken. The spinning magnet had become wobble and grabbed the aluminum cup. Good the cable broke since otherwise the cup spurs would have broken as in yours. I mailed the spinning magnet part to a speedometer shop that rebuilt it w/ a bronze bushing (~1991). You might be able to use epoxy and fiberglass to re-connect the broken cup. It doesn't need electrical contact. The magnet applies a force to it, I suspect via eddy currents and/or "di-amagnetism".

 

[Abodybomber]

Nice work,Del.

 

[RedFish]

About speedometers, there are no sources for new replacement parts. About speedometer repair shops, They will have a lathe, tooling, and materials to make tiny naval bronze bushings, etc., ( very rare ), or a stockpile of good used and NOS instruments to take said parts from.
Although the majority of those parts are identical in a vast number of instruments, their stockpiles have depleted. THIS is another of the reasons I quit.
Bottom line.. If you can find a good used speedometer, buy it and get the rest of its life from it.

 

[gdizzle]

Hi 76dart273. Can u show how you wired into a battery i want to test the gauges like u did. 2 D batteries would give 3v right? Is that all the gauge needs to go full?

 

[TrailBeast]

Hi 76dart273. Can u show how you wired into a battery i want to test the gauges like u did. 2 D batteries would give 3v right? Is that all the gauge needs to go full?

5 volts is normal operating voltage for the fuel and temp gauges on vehicles with the limiter.

I use a 14 volt transformer for 12 volt stuff (because about 14 is what the charging system max output is)

Then for the 5 volt gauges I used a home made voltage limiter (like the electronic ones people replace the OEM limiter with)

Connect the power+ to your gauges where the circuit board did and then ground the sender terminal of the gauge and it should go to max reading. (batteries or transformer either one works, but it would take 3 batteries to get 4.5 volts.)
This should give you a reading very close to full (or maximum on the gauges)

I just did all my gauges with aftermarkets in my OEM cluster face, and all LED lighting for the entire cluster as well as in the new gauges, signal indicators and high beam indicator.

I hate incandescent light.

The camera didn't like it much, but the camera doesn't drive the car.

 

[67Dart273]

Hi 76dart273. Can u show how you wired into a battery i want to test the gauges like u did. 2 D batteries would give 3v right? Is that all the gauge needs to go full?

Really that is just a quick and dirty test. Yes, two batteries. You need "big" ones D is what you should use.

"In reality" they should be tested "in circuit" with resistors. That is, a working IVR, and a sender or test resistor so you can see what it does. You can use an ohmeter to adjust your fuel sender out of the tank, or buy some resistors

These resistances are based on the old Chrysler shop test tool (see the manual)

L = 73.7 Ohms (empty)
M = 23.0 Ohms (1/2)
H = 10.2 Ohms (full)

All the gauges are same, fuel, temp, oil if equipped.

Also remember that the IVR whether factory or modern solid state, must have a ground.

So you need battt +12 to the switched ignition terminal on the cluster

NEG 12 to the cluster ground

And then wire the resistors above one at a time from the sender terminal to batt NEG

Prop the cluster up at approx correct viewing angle, and allow them to set a minute under power to stabilize

 

[gdizzle]

Hi dart273

So I want to be sure I am ok: down and dirty test on the Gas gauge.
take 2 D batteries, link them to gether, take 1 wire from + on battery and connect to 1 terminal on the gauge, then take another wire attach to - on battery and touch 2nd terminal on gauge. And the gauge should do something, right?
let me know, excited to see it move.

 

[67Dart273]

Yup. It won't be exact but it should give you something close to the photo, and at least some idea of how "workable" the guages are

 

[TrailBeast]

Here I go popping into something that's none of my business, but if it helps any, good.
The two gauges use the same common power source marked with red.
The grounds are the pins that senders are connected to and marked black.

Negative of the two batteries end to end connects to the negative terminal on each gauge and the positive to the terminals that are marked in read.

 

[67Dart273]

Actually, TB the gauges "don't care" about polarity. At least THESE gauges. They are "hot wire" gauges. You are certainly right that the + side are common. Make sure you disconnect the IVR when doing this

 

[66Dvert]

So got the cluster out 66 dart 270. Wonder why the speedo didnt work? Well apparently it had a major breakdown and exploded? See pics/ . I was hoping I could scavenge pieces from this other cluster from a 71 dart, but I think they are too different. Any ideas?
Also all gauges are dead, now I see that a few of the pins are detached, and few others are loose? Is there a fix for this? help me out. thanks

You can get a replacement board for your cluster.
here is the link, but it shows that he's away for a bit, today to be exact.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/360260745924?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

 

[TrailBeast]

Actually, TB the gauges "don't care" about polarity. At least THESE gauges. They are "hot wire" gauges. You are certainly right that the + side are common. Make sure you disconnect the IVR when doing this

Seriously? (of course you are serious)
No polarity requirement?

Huh, didn't know that.

 

[gdizzle]

Well here is an update:
after soldering good wire to all of the points, and replacing all of the bulbs, and replacing the voltage Regulator, and testing the fuel gauge (yes it worked but I needed 3 D batteries to get it up to 3/4 full), I reinstalled and what i got was:
Right turn indicator works on the cluster. Nothing else.
So with my frustration, I just ordered the repro cluster for $140 incl shipping.

I want to ask, since the one turn indicator bulb is working, this means I do have ground for the cluster? Right? Or is it possible that the cluster has to have multiple ground points in order for each light/gauge to function?

Any help on the Speedometer?