timmybighands

Okay. I'm officially a moron. I'll explain why... I started working on my car's instrument cluster for these reasons:

I had no working tach, no oil pressure guage (the speedo works fine, the volt meter works good, the temp gauge works good). The Fuel works fine at full to 1/2, but below that it sinks right to WAY below empty.

Now, it's WORSE. I tried grounding out the oil pressure guage to see if the needle moves. When I did so, there was a short followed by smoking electrical. ****.

Now I have no tach, no oil, no temp, no fuel. Only thing that works is the speedo - and that's mechanical. All my idiot lights are working fine, as are the turn signals and hazards. Just NO guages.

I assume I need a new cluster now? IDK WTF is going on... and I HATE electrical problems. Any assistance is greatly appreciated. TIA.

~ Timmy

trochoid

iTrader: (6)

Look for burnt filaments on the circuit board, look at each gauge. There are fine white wires wound around a thin bar. If they are not bright white, show any burning or browning, they are toast. Also check your fuses, meter. I can't see all of the gauges going at once, the board or a fuse maybe.

timmybighands

Thanks for the info. Can you replace the filaments if they are shot? Where might I find a new circuit board? This thin bar - where is that at? Behind the circuit board?

I think now I've got a bad board/filaments, a bad ignitor, and a bad oil pressure sending unit. Not sure though.

Also, will an '85 instrument cluster work in my '83? They seem different.

trochoid

iTrader: (6)

The filaments and bar are on each gauge, it is a bi-metalic strip that moves the needles. 83's are different than the 84-85 clusters.