williaml
Well-Known Member
Where can I find the Instrument Cluster Voltage Regulator on the car. Is it under the dash or on the firewall....
Thanks as always.
Thanks as always.
The regulator does NOT have anything to do with your dashlights. The voltage regulator is only for the fuel and temp gauges.
Probable culprits are bad bulb, dirty contacts, bad bulb holder, bad trace on circuit board. I don't remember how much harder it is to pull the instrument cluster on a dart than a valiant, but 65 valiants are easy to pull. I would pull the cluster out clean copper where the bulb holder makes contact, clean the terminal pins where the harness plugs in, and clean the copper where the circuit board bolts to the dashface. The little nuts that the factory used are stamped steel with a very small contact area I like to change them to normal style nuts with small copper washer and some dielectric grease. And while you have the dash out replace every bulb so you don't have to go back as they fail one by one.
Your voltage limiter may be housed in gas gage. Not all were external, and pluped into circuit board.
Its not plugged into gas gage, but built into gas gage. I have not had one of these gas gages in my hands, so a better description as to what to look for escapes me. It is safe to say though if there is no external voltage limiter plugged into the circuit board easily seen, than look inside gas gage for the limiter; it will look like a set of points.
These internal limiters can be bypassed if defective and replace with an external device; preferably an up dated electronic unit producing a constant 5v output. Search this site and slantsix.org for methods used by others to accomplish this task if you find that your voltage limiter is bad.
Im not at my computer with its vast book marked stash of A Body tid-bits, or I would hot link several sites for you to this topic; sorry.
Fuel gauges with 3 contact/mounting posts have the voltage liniter built inside. All other typical gauges have only 2 posts. Early a-body panels and the rallye panel found in 67 through 71 second generation A-body have 3 post gauges.
A single wire from a round object is a noise supression capasitior. It's duty is to prevent a pop noise in your radio speaker that is generated buy thelimiters points, opening and closing. A solid state regulator doesn't generate the noise so the capasitor isn't needed.
But wait... That wire should have been attached to the limiter. Why would it be attached to the fuel gauge unless your limiter is infact inside the fuel gauge ?
If that fuel gauge has 3 posts, you wont find a limiter attached anywhere else.
All this and more is available to read on the DeMonIVR website.
the mechanical limiters fail eventually regardless where they are located. Oil gauge, temp gauge, and fuel gauge get their power supply from the limiter.
There is only one limiter. "It" supplies power to ANY guages except speedo, tach, or ammeter.
In other words it powers fuel, temp, and oil if you have it.
When the limiter is built into the fuel gauge, as yours should be, the gauge will have THREE terminals.
1 switched 12V into the gauge to feed the limiter
2 limiter OUTPUT is wired internally to the fuel gauge, and comes OUT to a second terminal, which jumpers limiter output over to the temp and oil gagues
3 the fuel sender terminal.
I redid the cluster in my 65 Dart. It is fairly easy to remove but the screws go into plastic so be careful. I wrapped the split plastic posts w/ nylon tape and epoxy to fix them. The regulator is in the fuel gage and smart to replace with an external electronic one. A guy on ebay sells them for ~$25 w/ good photos.
While you have the cluster out, sand all the connectors, including bulb contacts, and coat w/ silicone grease. Re-soldering loose pins on the circular connector is a common repair. I used LED dash bulbs which look nice and should last forever (ebay).
I went further and removed the plastic lenses and polished. That isn't easy since you must drill the "welds" and epoxy back. I also had all the plastic dash pieces chrome sprayed (Sacramento Chrome $110.). Might as well go whole hog.