1966 Gauge repair outcome...

[GassMann]

Hey all,



It's been a while since I replied to this thread. I wanted to come back to finish the story of this repair. Terry sent me wire... thank you SO much. I got a micro-welder and it worked great. Took a bit of getting a handle on it but I got there. I was able to repair one of the gauges with what Terry sent but I now had two more that failed. I could not find the wire ANYWHERE so I turned to Microsoft's CoPilot. Within seconds, it returned 5 places. 4 of them in China... but one of the in Florida. A company called Pelican Wire Home. The have EXACTLY what I needed but they only sell it in 100' spools for $500. I asked if they could find their way to 10' for this project. The sales rep said "Heck, I can send you a sample for that low" and he did... totally free. First, it's an American company and second... what a great customer service. If you ever need 34-gauge, insulated nichrome wire, hit up Pelican Wire.



So... I was able to wrap, weld and repair all 4 deflection gauges. Below, one with wire @twecomm sent me (with the white silk insulation) the other with the wire from Pelican Wire. I micro-welded the wires to the base, then covered that with heatless solder to make sure it anchored. I got to tell you, it was TEDIOUS wrapping the bimetal deflector rails. But all is right with the world again. Are they accurate? Heck, not totally sure. I bought a set of resistors for inline testing. 10 ohm, 24 ohm and 75 ohm. With the 24 ohm, I manipulated the deflector rails so they would read at 50% of the swing arc. Not sure that was highly accurate but from what I read, it should have been close enough for government work.

 

[66JS]

Hi GassMann ,

I am working on my 66 Charger’s gauges, and am curious about how you micro welded the nichrome wire to the stud base.
Did you have to use a Tig welder to do ? Or a jewelers mini spot Welder ?
Please tell me the exactly what you used and how you did it .
Also please explain how you manipulated the deflector rails to get a good reading.

Thank You !

 

[GassMann]

Hi GassMann ,

I am working on my 66 Charger’s gauges, and am curious about how you micro welded the nichrome wire to the stud base.
Did you have to use a Tig welder to do ? Or a jewelers mini spot Welder ?
Please tell me the exactly what you used and how you did it .
Also please explain how you manipulated the deflector rails to get a good reading.

Thank You !

Hey 66JS... here's what I used. I think i paid something like $30 for it. Even so, it does not take much energy and took some time to perfect a weld. The wire is so hair-thin that the weld sometimes did hold very well. So to ensure it didn't come apart with use, I also put a bit of conductive paste on the joint and wire and let it set.

Both links are below. I am doing this from my phone so let me know if these links don't work and I will get a shortened link for you.

https://www.amazon.com/Handheld-Por...cphy=9032810&hvtargid=pla-2203478992051&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/Thermal-Silv...380450&sprefix=conductive+glue,aps,238&sr=8-7

 

[66JS]

Hi GassMann,

Thank you for the quick reply !
Yes links work fine.

Did you see my question about manipulating the frame rails ? Curious what you did there to get reading more correct.

Thanks again for your help

 

[GassMann]

Hi GassMann,

Thank you for the quick reply !
Yes links work fine.

Did you see my question about manipulating the frame rails ? Curious what you did there to get reading more correct.

Thanks again for your help

Ok... so the defection bar is a bimetal bar the moves based on the amount of heat. That is regulated by the fuel gauge in the cluster below the alternator gauge. It has an extra deflector with contacts. This gauge drops the voltage to 5v max. That gauge often fails to regulate the voltage after all these years so did you get the replacement/upgraded voltage regulator yet? You will need that... see the link below.

Next, you will need 10, 25 and 75 ohm 12v resistors to test with if you want test your gauges thoroughly. The higher the voltage, the more heat the bar will feel. You temp, fuel and oil pressure gauges max out at 10 oms and just start to register at 75 ohms. Since it isn't an exact linear scale, 25 ohms seems to be the halfway point.

So once you get it all working (deflecting), the way I calibrated it was the use the 25 ohm resistors, note the location, then adjust the bar at the base side, not the swing side. This required me to assemble and disassemble several times so I could see where in the arc the needle ended up.

All this can be done on the bench with access to a car battery.

I got the resistors from Digikey. It takes some hunting to find the right resistors. But I recall I bought several of them each so if you can't find them PM me and I will mail the to you. They are pennies per so not expensive.

Heres a link to the digi-key 10 ohm resistor.

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/te-connectivity-passive-product/C1410RJL/5586365


Here's the voltage regulator from classic industries. A note on the voltage regulator, they require a common ground. I drilled a hole near the fuel gauge and used a self-tapping screw to mount the anchor tab to the cluster frame. I removed the capacitor found in that same area because we are bypassing that deflector in favor of the voltage regulator.


https://www.classicindustries.com/p...O5045bDrEixxko449UxoCpt4QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[66JS]

Ok... so the defection bar is a bimetal bar the moves based on the amount of heat. That is regulated by the fuel gauge in the cluster below the alternator gauge. It has an extra deflector with contacts. This gauge drops the voltage to 5v max. That gauge often fails to regulate the voltage after all these years so did you get the replacement/upgraded voltage regulator yet? You will need that... see the link below.

Next, you will need 10, 25 and 75 ohm 12v resistors to test with if you want test your gauges thoroughly. The higher the voltage, the more heat the bar will feel. You temp, fuel and oil pressure gauges max out at 10 oms and just start to register at 75 ohms. Since it isn't an exact linear scale, 25 ohms seems to be the halfway point.

So once you get it all working (deflecting), the way I calibrated it was the use the 25 ohm resistors, note the location, then adjust the bar at the base side, not the swing side. This required me to assemble and disassemble several times so I could see where in the arc the needle ended up.

All this can be done on the bench with access to a car battery.

I got the resistors from Digikey. It takes some hunting to find the right resistors. But I recall I bought several of them each so if you can't find them PM me and I will mail the to you. They are pennies per so not expensive.

Heres a link to the digi-key 10 ohm resistor.

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/te-connectivity-passive-product/C1410RJL/5586365


Here's the voltage regulator from classic industries. A note on the voltage regulator, they require a common ground. I drilled a hole near the fuel gauge and used a self-tapping screw to mount the anchor tab to the cluster frame. I removed the capacitor found in that same area because we are bypassing that deflector in favor of the voltage regulator.


https://www.classicindustries.com/p...O5045bDrEixxko449UxoCpt4QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Thank You for all the information !
I will be finalizing the repair soon, and I will look at moving the rail for best reading.