gauge circuit board

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moparstud440

moparstud440

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I've been troubleshooting my car (69 barracuda) since I put it back together after paint. The dash was out of the car when I purchased it so I've never had everything working before I tore it down. I have no brake lights or turn signal lights, but I believe that has to do with a faulty turn signal switch (I replaced it with a new one before paint..) Anyways I was going over the wiring diagram tracing wires, etc. I come to notice that the 2 prongs for the Instrument lamp and Left turn signal lamp are not there. I was able to take a picture with my phone as the dash is installed in the car. With these 2 pins missing would that only affect the dash light and the left turn signal indicator light? Would I be able to just solder new pins in those locations? (Obviously would have to pull the dash back out) If so does someone make the correct pins for those locations?

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Get a new or original board. It can be repaired but likely not worth the time. It only effects the dash lights so not your real issue. Check grounds, sockets and body wiring. Lots of these issues are really in the column switch, and they are not all equal. I suggest a unit that has full length wires and plug and play connections down to the connector they have done the research for a good result. Do not go the short deal with just a cam assembly JMO!
 
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Depending on the level of restoration you are doing, you could just solder wires to the circuit board where the pins went and splice them into the connnector wiring. Replacing the pins and getting them to be reliable will be difficult for someone not skilled in that kind of work.
I will usually set the dash in place and hook up the electrical to check it out before it gets permanently installed. Seems like there is always one more thing to fix or something I jacked up.
 
There's an old old but tremendous thread on repairing these. I cannot tell from your restricted view WTF is going on there

Anyhow, here:

Printed circuit pins repair

I disagree these are not worth fixing. That is, if you can do basic soldering. You MUST use radio type (rosin core) solder
 
This left board connection is too close to the top of the panel. Service manual states to pull the panel outward and tilt face down to disconnect. Figure in the age and stiffness of wire, not quite enough wire provided. Too often the upper pins are bent/loosened or leave with the harness connector.
A new board will be pretty much identical to OEM. It does have slightly shorter pins and they are soldered to the copper trace. If they ever do lift away from the board they will peel the trace away with them.
To fix what you have and improve serviceability...
Buy a basic 4 wire trailer harness connection, available most anywhere. Solder 3 wires of this male connector at all 3 of these contact points. Maybe use the 4th wire with a ring terminal under a screw as both a chassis ground and a anchor for this soldered on "pig tail". Replace the factories female harness connector ( with broken pins in it ) with the female side of trailer harness connector. I route my inst' panel ground wire to a added screw behind left kick panel. Routing it to a column support bolt works but... it'll get disconnected when the column is lowered during panel service. So it doesn't help with panel testing before everything is bolted back together.
About new paint... Most everything electrical on these older vehicles requires a metal to metal contact for chassis ground path. So there are a lot of places where we must scratch away small spots of new paint. Front park turn fixtures are plastic so they do have a ground wire routed to radiator support ( same with headlights ). Rear brake turn fixtures are grounded through their mounting hardware. A ground jumper from firewall to engine block is a player in this ground path. At some year model the factory added a ground jumper from radiator support to the neg' battery post. This is a good addition for front lighting, etc..
Some of the aftermarket ( ebay ) signal switches are junk so check that you do have power out of it first. If it is working... check fixture grounds.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I work in the electronic field and actually run a surface mount machine as a living, so soldering is something I can handle. I didn't notice the pins still sticking in the connector and since the dash was already out of the car when I bought it I'm thinking the old owner was troubleshooting it before I got it. I may see if I can find some type of pin to solder in the hole that will work and give that a shot.
 
there easy to fix , look around under the dash for the pins mine were in the dash frame lip . the pins are hollow I put a piece of 14 g copper wire in the pin , and then pushed it in the hole of the rivet on the board then soldiered it in , it made it WAY stronger than the factory .
 
Notice that there is very little clearance between back of board and housing. Don't create a short to ground under the board. Plus keep in mind that if/when the pin pulls away again, solder will peel the trace right off the board. Good luck with it.
 
If you are an electronics guy this repair should be duck soup for you. Copper rivets or little brass screws work pretty good.
 
So I fixed the 2 pins tonight and go my left turn signal indicator light working. My dash lights still don't work. I checked to make sure the pins had connection before putting the board back in. Guess I'll have to trace the other dash light wires.
 
All illumination is same circuit same orange wire. This wire is weld splice forked in the harness to feed the 2 circuit board connectors. Radio dial light, ash tray light, shift indicator light, all on the same orange wire circuit. There is a fuse for this single circuit, and a dimmer rheostat in the headlight switch.
 
RedFish said:
All illumination is same circuit same orange wire. This wire is weld splice forked in the harness to feed the 2 circuit board connectors. Radio dial light, ash tray light, shift indicator light, all on the same orange wire circuit. There is a fuse for this single circuit, and a dimmer rheostat in the headlight switch.
Click to expand...

After a quick check I have power on the orange wire going to the dash. I ended up pulling the dash from the car. I made a fixture to test the bulbs and discovered that a few of them were blown. Than I rigged up a way to test the bulbs in the dash before reinstalling the dash and most of them wouldn't work. Ended up having to clean the bulb, housing and circuit board connections. Everything worked on the bench. Stuck it back in the car and it didn't seem to work until I turned the garage lights off. I forgot how dim these car dash lights are compared to the newer cars. But I got all the dash lights working now, just need to get to the turn signal switch to figure that issue out yet.
 
I have read the same a couple times before. "Couldn't tell the dash lights were on in daylight". Sorry that I don't think to mention or ask questions. The four #158 bulbs behind tinted diffusers in such a large cavity isn't much.
There are ways to make it more like newer models if that's what you like. LED bulbs, even white gauge screens. I soldered a jumper over the dimmer rheostat ( it had died anyway ) so OEM lighting is full on. Good enough for me.
 
RedFish said:
I have read the same a couple times before. "Couldn't tell the dash lights were on in daylight". Sorry that I don't think to mention or ask questions. The four #158 bulbs behind tinted diffusers in such a large cavity isn't much.
There are ways to make it more like newer models if that's what you like. LED bulbs, even white gauge screens. I soldered a jumper over the dimmer rheostat ( it had died anyway ) so OEM lighting is full on. Good enough for me.
Click to expand...

Thanks,

The factory bulbs should be sufficient as I really don't plan on driving the car at night, just for daytime trips or after work trips to the ice cream shop, but just incase I do end up in the dark atleast I know I'll be able to see the gauges.
 
Update

I got everything working!

Ended up being the turn signal switch. It needed ALOT of tweaking to get it to work. The pins were too long, to close to the turn signal switch part and not making contact and than they weren't bent out enough to touch the contacts. So after about a dz times removing and tweaking it, I got my 4 ways, brake lights and turn signals all to work.

Thanks everyone input and man I'm glad to have that issue resolved.
 
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