Gauge issues - 66 Valiant

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67GTS

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We've got a 66 ragtop that has had this issue for some time now and I just can't seem to track down the problem.

First, a little history, the car definitely had a melt down at some point as the fuseable link had been replaced and the wiring harness was a mess. I replaced the entire dash wiring harness.

What was happening is the gas gauge would do little to nothing. It would occasionally move up and then eventually go back to empty. The temp gauge looked like it worked fine until you put the headlights on at which point it would peg and stay there.

Others advised me that they thought it was a grounding issue so yesterday, I ran a ground wire from one of the ground points on the PCB.

Now, I get nothing out of either the gas or temp. They will not move. I did test both sending units by grounding them and they both did peg so I don't believe it to be an issue with the sending units.

I have already replaced the voltage regulator and I had another voltage limiter (back of the cluster) and swapped that in there as well with no change. That was all done prior to the ground wire yesterday.

I'm getting frustrated aty this point.

Ideas?
 
So now that I've been reading Glowworm's wiring issues, I am starting to wonder if my issue could be related to the headlight switch? The switch seems to work properly but when the previous meltdown happened, the old headlight switch connect suffered a partial meltdown. Could it have damaged the switch?

I'm grasping at straws.
 
Those stupid switches do have alot to do with what is going on in our cars, Make sure that switch is grounded.
 
you need a good ground from the gas tank sending unit to the car frame. if the factory strap is loose or gone the gauge wont work.
 
I believe the ground at the tank is fine. Again, it's not just the gas but the temp gauge isn't working as well.

I'm planning on replacing the light switch next.
 
im curious as to what effect the headlight switch has on the gauges. totally different circuit.
 
None as far as I can tell but turning the lights on used to peg the temp gauge. It looked like it worked fine with the lights off. Now that I added a ground wire to the back of the circuit board, I get nothing out of the gas or temp, lights on or off.

I'm out of ideas.
 
Time to do a complete pin-out of your bulkhead connector. It sounds like you have incompatible harnesses, possibly due to differing options (unfortunately all wires weren't in the same locations always).
 
This is a new wiring harness. I had the same issues with the old harness.
I went over the new harness carefully and traced every wire to insure that it all was going to the right terminal.
 
have you pulled your dash out? did you notice if the pins coming off the back of the dash are broken away? are you still running the AMP meter setup on your dash? that could possibly have melted something and and caused your issue. they do get kinda hot!
 
I inspected the pins and they look fine. I am still using the AMP meter set up.
 
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