Dash Cluster Printed Circuit Board differences

[super70bird]

FYI - I had a heck of a time this summer rebuilding the cluster on my 76 Feather Duster. Had a mint cluster from my 74 Duster so I decided to swap it into the 76. The main connector fit fine, but once powered on nothing worked correctly and a few of the 74 gauges got fried. Turns out the PCB's are different. In the first pic, the PCB in the middle is from the 74. Notice that the ammeter (2 holes all the way at the right) is NOT powered from the PCB, it's got its own wires which connect to it. In the next pic you can see that the 76 PCB powers the ammeter. So there are 2 extra pins in the main plug to feed the ammeter.

Just so you know that not all the PCB's are the same. Not sure about 1975 ones.

 

[69signetv8]

I went kinda through the same thing, and yes "as well" there maybe a few connector pins different between the different years. I ended up just cutting and swapping the few wires to match the correct pin....(all's cool and works great)

 

[64ragtop]

... In the first pic, the PCB in the middle is from the 74. Notice that the ammeter (2 holes all the way at the right) is NOT powered from the PCB, it's got its own wires which connect to it. In the next pic you can see that the 76 PCB powers the ammeter. So there are 2 extra pins in the main plug to feed the ammeter.

Just eyeballing the copper foil traces in that second picture, I was wondering if they could take the full charging current. Also, I didn't _think_ Ma MOPAR had ever run the full alternator current through the dash printed circuit. Then I noticed that needle in the gauge shown in picture #1 is sitting centered, and the needle in the gauge shown in picture #2 is sitting at the far left end of its' travel. From that, I came to the opinion that the cluster in pic,#2 features a VOLTmeter, and #1 is indeed an AMPmeter.

I could be wrong, and certainly don't know everything, but that's what it looks like to me. Also, I notice that in addition to the two extra pins to feed what I suspect is a VOLTmeter, the rest of the pins are clocked differently, which may have resulted in wrong voltages being sent to the gauges that "got fried". I hope this helps, and if I'm wrong, OOPSSsssss!!!

BC

 

[mod5v]

I have a 76 and did the same but I noticed the diffrence before I hurt any thing. I don't have a wiring diag but I believe that the 76 has a shunt somewhere for the amp meter. Mine never moves.I cant remember if I used the earlier amp guage or the 76 one. now its a moot point as I have a #10 ga wire direct from the alt to the battery. One of these days I'm going to install a volt meter so I know wheter its charging or not.