gauges

[frankyjoet]

hi, have a few ?,s about testing gauges mech. and electric in my 73 gmc truck. Q1-Have changed from the old style oil gauge to electric not after market. i have also a heavy duty oil pump. Do i need a different oil gauge to allow for the heavy oil pump? when engine running , gauge shows past 60. Q2- temp gauge mechanical doesn,t move. tried 2 others same results. chked sending unit connection - tight. the gauges when tested are in the gauge bezel and secure. i also pretested gauges with a resistance volt meter. any suggestions would be appreciated. thanks in advance frankyt

[chrismoore701]

Check your connections for the oil pressure gauge. Be sure they are tight against the circuit board. I just had to pull half of mine out to clean and tighten them up

[hatzie]

Incredibly good post on Chris's 73-87 board about how to troubleshoot GM gauges. Print it off and read it...
http://forum.73-87chevytrucks.com/sm...1241#msg211241

The GM wiring manuals are here...

[frankyjoet]

thanks chris, will do that. the circuit board is very new, bought on ebay. Shall i replace the temp sending part? i have many board clips for extras.

[chrismoore701]

I don't think you need to replace the clips. You can if you want. I pull mine. Hit with a wire brush. Bent the tabs to make them a tighter fit. A little squirt of dielectric grease and put back to gether. Works great. Also did that to all my bulbs. Clean. Bend. Grease as for the temp. Not sure how that works but there is not a lot there to break. So I would try a new sending unit

[frankyjoet]

Hi chris, opened the link you sent and printed 5 of 8 pages. read about temp gauge and ran a test with my actron meter tester. following step 4 in testing procedure i made the test meter the sending unit by attaching the red wire to the sender wire and grounded blk wire to the body. turned ignition ON. test worked fine . the temp gauge showed left line (when hot) the temp gauge went to right line on gauge when the meter showed 51 ohms. i am a novice with the meter, i was taught about volts and resistance settings. The next day i turned the ignition ON and the pointer was at the left line 100. the oil temp gauge is OK. fuel is OK volts OK. i removed all the clips and bent the sides to make tighter. put bulb grease in the bulb connectors. i have this electrical spray MP3 great for all electrical needs. Thanks again for link and info for gauges, it is very helpful. i hope i didn't confuse. frankyt 73 gmc owner/restorer long bed 350 bored 4.0 rv cam and a lot of extras.

[hatzie]

I'm not Chris. The link is to captchaos 73-87 forum.
hatzie is fine. Even folks that know me call me that.

No problem on the link. Glad it helped. It's one of the best writeups on these gauge panels I have ever seen.