Rustyfish
Member
So in the first pics you can see the rust stains in the backing plates for the small gauges. I wire wheeled those and sprayed them with a rust converter. Later I'll spray those with some flat black.
Cluster Housing Refurb
- Thread starter Rustyfish
- Start date
-
Rustyfish
Member
So my cluster is completely dismantled and I painted the backing plates and black bezel rings. All are flat black after cleaning up and spraying a coat of rust converter. They look pretty good. Will post pics later. Question is, as I was looking at the face of my fuel gauge, it looks like something happened to it and the face has what looks like an oil stain on it. Could this be residue from a meltdown of the gauge? It has not worked correctly since I've had the car.
Most of that is typical sunburn. The scar might have always been there since its in a spot not seen. So the needle goes all the way home. That's a good sign.
Do you find what looks like black pepper inside the can? Tap it on the table and the stuff falls out? Thats a bad sign.
If you have a Ohms meter you can get more info. Resistance post to post, ( I think this is a 20 ohm example ), if not 20 ohms, its 13 ohms. Open or infinite from post to can. Anything different is a bad sign.
Do you find what looks like black pepper inside the can? Tap it on the table and the stuff falls out? Thats a bad sign.
If you have a Ohms meter you can get more info. Resistance post to post, ( I think this is a 20 ohm example ), if not 20 ohms, its 13 ohms. Open or infinite from post to can. Anything different is a bad sign.
Rustyfish
Member
Thanks for helping Redfish.
So here is what I see after my inspection. You may or may not be able to see in the first pic, but there is some of the black pepper in the bottom of the gauge inside. It doesn't fall out, but not good anyway.
Here are the results of the Ohm test. 3 terminals on the back of the gauge, top post A, left post I and right post S looking at the gauge from the rear.
A to I=.281
I to S=13.5-14.0 jumping
A to S=20.7
The 3 post gauge has the mechanical voltage limiter inside it. So your debris is/was carbon build up on nichrome windings. It came from that limiter, the fuel gauge, or more likely both.
I=input=12 volts. A=altered or adjusted voltage. Approx' 5 volts pulse fed to the fuel gauge internally and out to the other thermal gauge(s) via that post and circuit board(s). S=sender.
A to S at 20.7 is close enough. Check each post to the housing.
Did the other thermal gauges work like they should?
Footnote for the others reading here... 2 post gauges are using those posts marked I and S. The input was altered elsewhere.
I=input=12 volts. A=altered or adjusted voltage. Approx' 5 volts pulse fed to the fuel gauge internally and out to the other thermal gauge(s) via that post and circuit board(s). S=sender.
A to S at 20.7 is close enough. Check each post to the housing.
Did the other thermal gauges work like they should?
Footnote for the others reading here... 2 post gauges are using those posts marked I and S. The input was altered elsewhere.
Last edited:
Rustyfish
Member
Ohm A post to housing= 49.7
Ohm I post to housing= bouncing anywhere from 83-92
Ohm S post to housing= 69.9
Temp gauge seems to work the best although I have to drive quite a while for it to come up. More a function of my clogged intake I think.
Ammeter didn't do much but was bypassed early on.
Oil pressure didn't seem to do much.
I'll have to go to the book to verify those readings. My memory sux.
The thing is... that build up on the winding restricts the movement of the bi-metal. And where its breaking and falling off there's a lot of it. Even if the windings are intact and not shorted to the beam, it can't move the needle like its supposed to. I wouldn't be surprised if you found the black pepper evidence in the oil gauge and maybe the temp gauge too.
Some have suggested the nasty carbon build up and the oil like staining all comes from cigar/cigarette smoke. Its a reasonable theory.
The thing is... that build up on the winding restricts the movement of the bi-metal. And where its breaking and falling off there's a lot of it. Even if the windings are intact and not shorted to the beam, it can't move the needle like its supposed to. I wouldn't be surprised if you found the black pepper evidence in the oil gauge and maybe the temp gauge too.
Some have suggested the nasty carbon build up and the oil like staining all comes from cigar/cigarette smoke. Its a reasonable theory.
Rustyfish
Member
I'm mostly interested in having a functional gas gauge right now. Down the road, I'd be interested in new gauges all around, but really not the look I prefer. If I could find 5" speedo and tach I might do that, but the Autometer mopar gauges are only 3 1/2".
OK A lot of technical crap to say "bad limiter" at minimum. The limiter is a set of mechanical points. If those points were closed as they should be the resistance from I to A would be zero. Its supposed to be zero.
To continue...
A to S and I to S would be the same 20
I to housing should be 50.
A to housing would be 50 also.
S to housing would back feed to show 70 or the total of both windings 50+20
A .X to X.X ohm variance from these readings could come from you meter leads.
So your 20.7 is really 20. I'll guess your meter leads together show .7
If I wasn't retired I would suggest you ship all 3 thermal gauges to me.
You did get me to open the book so that's something. LOL Good luck with them.
To continue...
A to S and I to S would be the same 20
I to housing should be 50.
A to housing would be 50 also.
S to housing would back feed to show 70 or the total of both windings 50+20
A .X to X.X ohm variance from these readings could come from you meter leads.
So your 20.7 is really 20. I'll guess your meter leads together show .7
If I wasn't retired I would suggest you ship all 3 thermal gauges to me.
You did get me to open the book so that's something. LOL Good luck with them.
Rustyfish
Member
Hahaha, my goals on this board
1. Have fun with my car
2. Try not to piss anyone off with stupid questions, at least not daily.
If I'm completely honest, the reading from I to A also pegged up into the 70s and 80s as well. Really it was all over the place.
Sounds like the vr mod is in order to try anyway.
Rustyfish
Member
Functioning aside, I'm going after decent looks as well. My small gauge lenses are stained with rust as you can see below. I fixed the metal parts that created the rust and they turned out pretty good.
Anyone have any ideas on how to remove rust embedded into plastic? I tried vinegar and baking soda as well as toothpaste. It worked a little but didn't touch the deeper stains.
Maybe some 3m plastic polish/ cleaner would do the trick! It is actually for lenses, and I've cleaned up a few taillight lenses with it!
Rustyfish
Member
Thanks Cosgig I think I saw that somewhere in my searching. I’ll give that a try.
Retnuh22
Well-Known Member
In reference to the Spectrachrome that was mentioned earlier.... I had
Creations N’ Chrome in Oregon
661-373-2727 put some on a few 3d printed prototype parts for me. The chrome is amazing, and the service was outstanding. If you can prep and have the parts in primer when you send them, it really wouldn’t be that much to have them apply the chrome to your dash parts. I highly recommend them. They are car folks as well.
Cheers!
Creations N’ Chrome in Oregon
661-373-2727 put some on a few 3d printed prototype parts for me. The chrome is amazing, and the service was outstanding. If you can prep and have the parts in primer when you send them, it really wouldn’t be that much to have them apply the chrome to your dash parts. I highly recommend them. They are car folks as well.
Cheers!
Rustyfish
Member
It has, it's under a cover and in a garage. It won't be out and subjected to the elements like it was before I got it. But actually getting to new gaskets and seals for the body will be far down the road. Getting it mechanically sound and driveable first which will be this spring. Still have to rebuild front end and install LD4B and Edelbrock. Then I can start working on aesthetics.
Rustyfish
Member
Does anyone have a picture of where exactly the where the chrome is supposed to go on the '66 gauge cluster? Doubt I will bother going with the spectrachrome. It doesn't interest me that much to have it perfect, but I did buy some Spaz Stix chrome paint and will give that a try. Just need to see exactly where it's supposed to go.
Rustyfish
Member
I always worry about paint lifting when having to mask an already painted surface especially on plastic. I'll give it a try. I was going to use the depression that gets blacked out as a masking transition area in between the chrome and argent.
Still I need to know if the chrome goes all the way down the side or is just on the forward facing outside edge.
Hope these help!
Rustyfish
Member
Thanks for those. Is there chrome inside the gauge rings? Also, does the chrome go all the way down on the sides?
Rustyfish
Member
Where is there white detail paint? Aside from the letters on the gauge lenses I can't think of where that would be.
The various/general colors don't apply to every example. Many do have white lettering. Sorry for any confusion.
Rustyfish
Member
Cool. That looks like the black was painted first, doesn't it? The chrome wore away and there was black underneath.
-
