Can another year fuel guage be swapped into 68 rallye cluster?

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Brendan Moroney

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Aside from one of the places that will repair of the current fuel guage in a 68 barracuda has anyone used the guts of another year mopar guage? I don't know if any other cluster uses a guage that has the internal 12 to 5v regulator or not. Not sure if the guage itself steps the voltage down after the fuel needle movement or after it then to the temp and oil pressure gauges.

if there is another guage that I can swap in and put in without even the regulator I could adapt and make another regulator for the remaining gauges if I isolate the post that goes to that trace on the board.

I know that there are a couple of places reproducing the rallye gauges but they make you buy all 4 at a cost of 400$ plus. I just need the guage or if anyone here has a known working original guage with functional regulator in it I would consider that as well.
 
It's worth replacing them all just to get away from the mechanical regulator and getting solid state IMO.

You want authenticity then any rally gauge from 67-72 will work. I would offer you the one I pulled from my 69 this winter but that would be doing you a diservice as it is nearly 50 years old. Likely not the answer you want but remember how old these cars are getting. The $400 is worth it, you should have seen my temp and oil pressure gauges! They were very bad, yet the fuel gauge looked decent. The internal regulator of the fuel gauge feeds all three, it is just located there. My oil, temp where always run to the high side which is why they looked so bad. The gas was always run closer to empty than full!
 
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1969383S said:
It worth replacing them all just to get away from the mechanical regulator and getting solid state IMO.

You want authenticity the any rally gauge from 67-72 will work. I would offer you the one I pulled from my 69 this winter but that would be doing you a diservice as it is nearly 50 years old. Likely not the answer you want but remember how old these cars are getting. The $400 is worth it, you should have seen my temp and oil pressure gauges! They were very bad, yet the fuel gauge looked decent. The internal regulator of the fuel gauge feeds all three, it is just located there. My oil, temp where always run to the high side which is why they looked so bad. The gas was always run closer to empty than full!
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That's actually a fair assessment to say it is worth the money... did you wind up replacing all of yours with the aftermarket ones?
 
Brendan Moroney said:
That's actually a fair assessment to say it is worth the money... did you wind up replacing all of yours with the aftermarket ones?
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Yes.

I used the only set I am aware of, made by Charger Specialties and sold through Year One, Classic and others. It was pretty straight forward short of the Ammeter! If you decide to go that way I had a post showing it but PM (conversation me) if you like for specific details about the amp gauge install! Good thing is that gauge is upped in design to handle more amperage than the factory gauge was.
 
yeah those are the ones. it would be nice if they offered a voltmeter as opposed to the ammeter as I was considering modifying the ammeter to have the guts of a voltmeter instead and do the MAD conversion.
 
Brendan Moroney said:
yeah those are the ones. it would be nice if they offered a voltmeter as opposed to the ammeter as I was considering modifying the ammeter to have the guts of a voltmeter instead and do the MAD conversion.
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Lots do!

I want my car as close to original as with in reason and will not make the MADD conversion. Honestly as 98% stock there is no reason to! After I replaced every harness and such, I expect another 50 years+ of what should be lighter service!
 
By the way it amazing how fast "all" the gauges re-act now!
 
or you can snip the regulator out of the guage and install an IVR , we used to have a member that created the Demon IVR , he was shut down from discussing his product here because he didn't make enough from it to afford to be a sponsor , he sold his rights to a third party and was making them for that outfit for a while but I believe he is out of the equation completely , they are still being sold tho , maybe try Ebay .
 
cannucky said:
or you can snip the regulator out of the guage and install an IVR , we used to have a member that created the Demon IVR , he was shut down from discussing his product here because he didn't make enough from it to afford to be a sponsor , he sold his rights to a third party and was making them for that outfit for a while but I believe he is out of the equation completely , they are still being sold tho , maybe try Ebay .
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I agree and is a good product, you still have to modify the old gauge if it is still operable! Sooner or later the other gauges are an issue! If you a want long term solution you are left with few choices and all that needs to be weighed. JMO!
 
Have had plenty of 50 year old gauges work fine. Of course those were in cars with 50 years of continuous use and not hacked up wiring.

I though there was a quick way to test the fuel guage. Like with a 9v battery or something?

The four rally guage inserts aren't too tough to find used. Look for one with a clean looking face and non coroded rear.
 
I agree with what you are saying , In my case I bought in when he was doing them himself and offering the surgery on an exchange basis with a nominal core charge so I didn't have to do it myself. I later picked up a couple of spare gauge sets as they came available here on FABO and have since performed the surgery myself twice but haven't had to use either of them as the one he did is still going great , I found in my case that fixing the regulator led to all my gauges coming back to proper life .

OP no sorry I am not looking to part with any of my spares at this point , not being greedy I am looking for another project to build and might well need them for that
 
I have a 70 Swinger. I think the rallye gauges are the same as yours, so I'll tell you what I did. Before you get into this you should make sure your sending unit is sending.

First, my oil and temp gauges were also fried but I was not interested in getting them working. I think it would be possible to use my method and keep the other gauges, but it might take some different wiring.
I ordered a fuel gauge for an 82-84 Jeep Wagoneer. The housing is exactly the same style as our rallye gauge. The guts are also the same, only the Jeep gauge didn't have the voltage regulator inside the gauge. Get one of those external ones used on most cars and you'll be fine. The jeep gauge only has two studs coming out the back, but if I'm remembering correctly the middle stud on the rallye gauge is used for the internal voltage regulator.
The Jeep needle is right up against the gauge face while the needle on our rallye gauges is about 1/4 inch in front of the face. You'll need to cut the needle off the Jeep gauge and use the needle from your rallye gauge. I affixed the rallye needle to the Jeep gauge with a dab of JB weld, but you could probably use any adhesive you think might work. Once you have both gauges apart in front of you, you'll see how to do this.
Finally, you'll have to gently pry the face off your current rallye gauge and do the same to the Jeep gauge so you can swap the faces. Actually, I removed the needles after removing the gauge faces. You'll want to get the faces off first so you can see where to remove the needles. The Jeep needle I just snipped off, but the rallye needle has a U shape at the bottom and I think I removed the needle without damaging it and flattened out the U into an L, and affixed it to the remainder of the Jeep needle. Forgive my sketchy memory, it was a couple years ago that I did this!

Here's what I bought:
https://m.summitracing.com/parts/cwa-j8126927
If you Google the 82-84 Jeep Wagoneer gauge you'll find a bunch of images that show what it looks like. When searching the interwebs for a low cost soultion i found the Jeep gauge and attempted this swap on a leap of faith that I could make it work, and I did make it work. Now, for the first time since my brother bought the Swinger in 1988, the fuel gauge actually functions!

Good luck with whatever path you choose.
 
autoxcuda said:
Have had plenty of 50 year old gauges work fine. Of course those were in cars with 50 years of continuous use and not hacked up wiring.

I though there was a quick way to test the fuel guage. Like with a 9v battery or something?

The four rally guage inserts aren't too tough to find used. Look for one with a clean looking face and non coroded rear.
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They are not to hard to find but how do you know what they have been through? Here is my Oil pressure gauge that saw 80 or more PSI for 5 years and 15/16 years of normal use. It was in storage for 25 years after, then restoration started in 2012. My temp gauge was just as bad. I can open the fuel gauge for a good picture but trust me it looks quite nice and white for the most part and was putting out a nice voltage.

Oil press.JPG
 
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CS gauges installed. They are way different and worth the expense. Once the bezel is on it hard to tell they were changed. The needles are wider but hard to tell fully assembled.

IMG_1668_LI.jpg
 
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