Transistor in rally gauge ?
Like I said I have no clue, but the gent the takes care of the car for me, told me it was the resistor, so I came asking here as I like to learn as much as I can... And from what I have deduced from all your help ( as usual ) is I have to buy me a Vrc 601 resistor I found on eBay. I had to do a search also to make sure that I had the right piece.
Now I have one more question.... Where does this go ? Is this soldered on the back now off the dash guages, or does it snap in somewhere ?
Again I can't say it enough, you guys literally teach me something every time I'm on this site.
Thanks.
That is the limiter that plugged into the back of a standard inst' panel. Your rallye panel doesn't have that. To use that to repair your rallye panel, you'll need to mount it somewhere, and wire it in but only after the original limiter is separated from the circuit one way or another. A dead limiter is very likely to be a short circuit. Current from the new/added limiter would back feed to and through that.
I've owner a rally panel b'cuda since early 80s. I serviced a bunch of these panels for other owners for about 8 years too. Too much experience. I've seen every possible mistake and made a few of them myself.
I can't know how familiar your "gent"/mechanic is with this inst' panel so I suggest you let him read everything related to it that you can find online.
This particular inst' panel is a chore to R&R because it includes the radio and climate control bezel ( unlike the standard panel ). Its also quite fragile and booby trapped in a couple spots too. Contact pins on circuit boards are easily broken in standard or rally or any case. This rally panel has 2 circuit boards so, There's a second harness connector on left side which is too close to the top edge of the panel. Contact pins on circuit board here are very easily broken. The service manual states pull the panel outward and tilt it. They don't say how far outward.
There's a spot where the circuit board extends past the lower edge of the cast housing too. At the workbench one could easily grab the housing here and lift with one hand. Broken circuit board can result. Right handed or not, just don't. Handle with extreme care.
Even though the following will read like a money pit... I have to advise that you do everything you can do while this inst' panel is removed. Clean every contact point on the circuit boards, 8 new light bulbs and 8 new bulb sockets, lube climate controller and cables, reseal wiper pivots, all practical maintenance for a 50 yr old vehicle.
Stuff like LED bulbs, converting the ALT' gauge to a VOLTS gauge and other mods are doable also if you wish to go that far. Good luck with it.
