Any tips on getting my gauges to work properly.
 

Recently redoing my entire interior and while doing the center stack I broke the hood over the gauges. I cried a bit on the inside cause I know replacing this is going to be tedious. So I figured while I was at it I would try and get my gauges working better. They do seem to work most of the time but occasionally they will cut in and out. Is this mostly because of grounds not being soldered properly? Am I going to open up a rats nest? Car is a 93 FD. Thanks for any help.

Hi Jon,

The better question to ask is what gauges are intermittent and what are they doing?

Check out the "just got done figuring out how to fix an FD odometer" thread if your Odo blanked out. It may also address any issues with a touchy tach or speedometer.

Remember, our cars have a "rat's nest". It's the bunch of vacuum lines that run under the Upper Intake Manifold (UIM). Is this what you meant or were you using an idiom?

Cheers,
George

Gas gauge is always working and oil pressure seems to as well. RPM, MPH and mileage seem to go in and out quite frequently. Mileage gauge seems to work the least. Also my RPM gauge is always 1300 over what it should be. Sometimes those gauges will work fine sometimes they will bounce around a bit. The RMP gauge will sit at 9k for instance sometimes for like 30 seconds.
The car is swapped so the rats nest I would have been referring to may be all the wiring behind the cowl. I'm pretty handy but the tedious work of wiring and tiny screws is not for me! Thanks for the thread I'll get to reading and see if that can help me. Just called Ray Crowe to order the parts! That dude is the man!

Glad to steer you in the right direction. The tach,speedo, and odo are controlled by the speedo board. The link you have should help (although it's mostly for odo repair).

Check out another associated thread "FD Speedometer-Odometer circuit board" for component part numbers & locations.

There is a similar part id thread for the tach as well.

Since your cluster is removed from the dash then might as well inspect the dodgy tach & speedo.

How are your solder skills?

And yes, Ray Crowe is the man! Some say that he counts RX-7 part numbers by system in his sleep!

Jon,

Have you made any progress on fixing your gauges?

Cheers,
George