So my 79 cutlass salon has the rally gauge package. The spedometer doesnt work because the new transmission doesnt have the right gear for my gauge. The tach is unplugged for my sunpro. All of a sudden all the other gauges are readng wack. I think my gas gauge is right. But the volt gauge is reading in the orange and i tested it with a voltmeter and it is putting out 14.6 volts. My temp gauge is reading about 230 when my fans dont kick on until 180. And the oil pressure reads about 5 pounds. So my question is, is it easier to try to fix the gauges, or is it easier to buy a couple of aftermarket gauge and get a pillar pod of put them on the dash? Thanks
cutass rally gauges
- Thread starter 79cutlasssalon442
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Looks like a bad ribbon on the back of the gauges. Probably not making contact to the connector on the dash, behind the gauge cluster or has breaks. There are companies that repair the ribbon if you send it to them and I think there are companies that make replacement ribbons.
With the car runnng my dad wiggled the assembly a little. The tach twitched and then the oil pressure gauge went to zero and that was itcrucial118 said:
sounds like you got a short somewhere. 9 out of 10 times with electrical its a fault with the contacts in a switch or connector. IIRC even the 79 should have the same connectors as my 86 does or very similar. the flexible "circuit board" that's on the back of these clusters have a tendency to have small breaks that are not very obvious, especially around the connector area's. I've been making some of them with some added improvements. I would go back and try to check and see with a multi meter if you have continuity from the engine bay up to the dash, then do wiggle tests here and there to try to isolate where it is. it sounds like that last test you guys tried finally severed the electrical connection. Check to see if you got power and ground going to the cluster. electrical is a pain and confusing at times
79cutlasssalon442 said:
What happens to these clusters over time is that the 4 little nuts on the back of the cluster loosen up and loose contact with the foil and also get corroded. Also the lights get very hot and warp the plastic housing. This causes the socket tabs to loose contact to the foil as well.
Remove the nuts, gently clean the foil, dab a little electrical grease on the threads and SNUG the nuts. If you crank them down you will tear the foil.
Remove the sockets and bend the tangs to add more tension, reinstall.
This is all pending you don't have a break in the foil elsewhere.
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