long story short,recently got 69 charger the factory gauges had been pillaged along with the dash harness,i bought a complete used cluster and a friend donated a good dash harness to the cause.With no harness in the car or gauge set i had no way of knowing if the cluster was good or not,so i went a head and refaced all the gauges,and put in all new lights,installed the harness and cluster.Seemed to go in pretty straight forward,well after trouble shooting the dash lights not working for many hours they now work,however none of the gauges work at all except the alt gauge.I get no movement what so ever when the key is turned on or by grounding out the sending units,the volt limiter has been tested and is good and i am getting voltage to the gauges,and i have ohm'd out the sending unit wires to make sure that they arent broken between the gauge and the sending units as well....how do i test to see if the gauges themselves are any good??i really need help with this thanks in advance
need help with ralley gauges(69 charger)
- Thread starter danimal95
- Start date
let me see if i can help you here. i just got my gas gauge...oil gauge and temp gauge working so i know a bit about it.
first off,,,the ALT gauge does not use the circuit board in the dash, to function. you say the dash lights are working....are the ones that twist into the circuit board also working???...or just the ones that are on wires for the speedo and the tach ??
check ALLLLLL grounds and make sure that circuit board is grounded well.
next i would check the 5 pin plug going into the circuit board. (this is why my gauges didnt work) . make sure there is nice shiny bare brass on the pins ( male)....and make sure there is nice shiny metal in the sockets (female). the smallest corrosion or varnish will play havoc ! make sure there are no micro cuts in the circuit board too.
next....check the volt limiter again by doing this....(in the car)
1.get a test light WITHOUT a battery in it and ground directly to the car battery.(clamp)
2. on the temperature sending unit with the connection still on the sending unit probe the temp sending unit wire OR wiggle the probe under the plug connection so that the probe and plug BOTH make contact. TURN KEY ON
3. if your test light pulsates slowly (on and off like a UFO)..the volt limiter is functioning correctly... if you get nothing ... the circuit board isnt grounded properly or the limiter is bad....if it stays on steady... the limiter is bad. im sure you know to cross the battery with your test light first to make sure IT is working properly.
if you ground the gas...oil....and temp gauges to GOOD GROUND... they should peg...and if you get nothing,,,,check ALLLLLL the grounds. put a ground strap from engine block to the firewall. ground the battery neg (-) to the rad support.
CLEAN THESE GROUNDING POINTS IF THEY ARE ALREADY THERE. I CANT STRESS ENUFF ABOUT THESE GROUNDS !!
9 times out of 10 the reason ANYTHING DONT WORK LIKE IT SHOULD ON THESE MOPARS .....ARE BAD GROUNDS.
Make sure all of your fuses in the fuse block are good also.
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take off the drivers side kick plate. in there youll find a connection plug. this connection plug i know has the gas gauge wire in it going to the gas tank. clean the connections. i believe the oil and temp are in the firewall big connection plug...clean all of these.
as far as testing the gauges themselves...grounding them out is the best way that i know of .... you cant test them this way if theyre in the car with bad grounds. youll have to take the gauges out and bench test.
i just went through everything i just typed here about a month ago and i got ALL of my gauges working finally....good luck my brother !!
first off,,,the ALT gauge does not use the circuit board in the dash, to function. you say the dash lights are working....are the ones that twist into the circuit board also working???...or just the ones that are on wires for the speedo and the tach ??
check ALLLLLL grounds and make sure that circuit board is grounded well.
next i would check the 5 pin plug going into the circuit board. (this is why my gauges didnt work) . make sure there is nice shiny bare brass on the pins ( male)....and make sure there is nice shiny metal in the sockets (female). the smallest corrosion or varnish will play havoc ! make sure there are no micro cuts in the circuit board too.
next....check the volt limiter again by doing this....(in the car)
1.get a test light WITHOUT a battery in it and ground directly to the car battery.(clamp)
2. on the temperature sending unit with the connection still on the sending unit probe the temp sending unit wire OR wiggle the probe under the plug connection so that the probe and plug BOTH make contact. TURN KEY ON
3. if your test light pulsates slowly (on and off like a UFO)..the volt limiter is functioning correctly... if you get nothing ... the circuit board isnt grounded properly or the limiter is bad....if it stays on steady... the limiter is bad. im sure you know to cross the battery with your test light first to make sure IT is working properly.
if you ground the gas...oil....and temp gauges to GOOD GROUND... they should peg...and if you get nothing,,,,check ALLLLLL the grounds. put a ground strap from engine block to the firewall. ground the battery neg (-) to the rad support.
CLEAN THESE GROUNDING POINTS IF THEY ARE ALREADY THERE. I CANT STRESS ENUFF ABOUT THESE GROUNDS !!
9 times out of 10 the reason ANYTHING DONT WORK LIKE IT SHOULD ON THESE MOPARS .....ARE BAD GROUNDS.
Make sure all of your fuses in the fuse block are good also.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
take off the drivers side kick plate. in there youll find a connection plug. this connection plug i know has the gas gauge wire in it going to the gas tank. clean the connections. i believe the oil and temp are in the firewall big connection plug...clean all of these.
as far as testing the gauges themselves...grounding them out is the best way that i know of .... you cant test them this way if theyre in the car with bad grounds. youll have to take the gauges out and bench test.
i just went through everything i just typed here about a month ago and i got ALL of my gauges working finally....good luck my brother !!
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