gauge help

[sanford&daughter]

i bought a set of gauges yesterday from the swap meet and went i got home i notice the circuit panel is broken. i know i can buy a new printed cicuit from lmc for $40 but was wondering if the is repairable before i spend the money. i have heard it can be soldered, i also heard that it can be repaired with a piece of aluminum foil and them gone over with nail polish. anyone have any other tips for the repair? also its on the #7 pin colud anyone tell me what that pin is used for. thanks

[bigmac73]

i would just invest in a new one saves from having a eletrical short or a fire later on

[68gmsee]

Best thing, as mentioned, is a new one but I fixed a land like that on my truck some years ago. I cleaned it off (burnished) to remove the tarnished part. Main thing is to make sure it hasn't burned through the land. In some cases you can use a pencil eraser to clean it up.

Then clean all the lands where the areas are tarnished but don't use finger nail polish. It may not make good contact and finger nail polish is flammable. Definitely would start a fire then.

[VetteVet]

The no. 7 pin is for the grounds for the dash gauge lights. It is fed by a black wire in the cluster plug and the copper strip is grounded by a small screw mounted through it to the cluster panel. There are a couple of the screws through the copper strip so depending on where the break is, the lights the lights may still work.

The orange wire in the diagram is the ground wire and it is right off the 7 pin. The circular dot just to the left is the first ground screw and the other dot over to the far right is the other one. All you may need to do is run a separate ground wire from the cluster to the cab dash. Just make sure the cab is grounded.

[VetteVet]

Ok I see the picture in your first post, and the break is right at the 7 pin. You should be able to just run a ground wire to the cluster to one of the two screws and the lights should work.

Or, You could just solder across the break at the 7 pin and use the black ground wire to ground the lights. I think I would do both but once you complete the solder, cover it with
some insulation. Black Silicon should work good.

[68gmsee]

Originally Posted by VetteVet

Ok I see the picture in your first post, and the break is right at the 7 pin. You should be able to just run a ground wire to the cluster to one of the two screws and the lights should work.

Or, You could just solder across the break at the 7 pin and use the black ground wire to ground the lights. I think I would do both but once you complete the solder, cover it with
some insulation. Black Silicon should work good.

Agree with above^. I missed that part of the pic. I was thinking sanford&daughter meant broke as in the land not making contact and gauges not working. Cleaning it off real good and solder a piece of copper wire across the break ought to do it.

[sanford&daughter]

Vettevet I'll try both option just incase 1 fails. Thanks