wtf is wrong with it now?

[67ChevyC10Stepside]

im so sick of this dash of mine.....you guys said the volt guage wouldnt work if the fuses at the fenders were blown...so i check them and they were just completely gone....so i get some fuses and start to put them in....fight with the first one like 20 minutes and take the other one apart and it breaks in half.....so i stare at the thing for a while and try to pry it out with a freakin screwdriver some needle nosed plyers etc etc. then i get the idea to get a drillbit and drill it out...works like a champ...put the new fuse in then try to put it together and it wouldnt go...so after about 10 minutes i put a drop of PB on the rubber and it slides together instantly. so i go in to start the motor and the guage still doesnt work....my alternator is good because it charges my battery and runs everything...the printed circuit looks good....is there some kind of ground strap im missing? my guage lights dont work either...when i turn it to where it should be brightest lights if i put it just right i can get them to come on real dim. i changed the dimmer switch to one i know worked in another truck and now it does the same as the first one...my tach works because it's directly wired and this is the only other electrical guage besides fuel that i dont have hooked up yet.

[67ChevyC10Stepside]

noone's even lookin at this? lol thanks.....

[Dick Dale]

I haven't had mine together in a long time but if the lights are dim, maybe the printed curcuit isn.t good. I would also try if the fuse connections are that bad, you might want to cut them out and put in new ones. In my own opinion, I do not see why you would need the fuses. Just connect the ends and forget the fuses.

[67ChevyC10Stepside]

i dont want to just rig it together......i want to know what's wrong and fix it correctly.

[Blue_71]

the lights dim and/or not working on the dash has a good possibility of being the headlight switch. my headlights and taillights worked perfect but had the same problem your having of little to no dash lights

the volt gauge, are you talking the factory ammeter charge discharge gauge, or an aftermarket volt gauge? ive never been able to get one of the stock ammeter gauges to work, but aftermarket volt gauges, in my experience, have real problems with keeping a ground... mine comes loose alot and has to be re-tightened.

about the fuses at the corners of the rad supports: those are what is known as a "fusible link". in my opinion you defintly dont want to run without them. i tried it one time, and had a short, burnt up almost a whole engine harness. they may seem useless (i thought the same thing) but they do have a huge purpose to serve

[67ChevyC10Stepside]

im talking the stock guage......and i know this switch is good.....i tried it on my other cab before i cut it up...

[69 Short Fleet]

Is your ground hooked up to shiney metal (good contact)? My gauge doesn't work either, I have not got around to looking at it yet (maybe tommorow). Did you check continuity in the fuses before you put them in (your sure their good?)

[dwaite72lnghrn]

I would look at the ground on the dash, A little bit of rust or paint under the clip can do the light thing. Next I would replace the fuse in the fuse block for the instrument cluster at the top 3amp, Make sure the fuse block is clean and not corroded before you put the new fuse in. Years of temp changes and humidity takes it's toll on fuses/fuse blocks and after 20 years I just replace them all because when they start to go bad the heat builds up at the connections and then starts to melt the fuse block.
As far as the Ampmeter goes, Is the harness butchered? The '71 GMC gauge didn't work I replaced the fuses still nothing then found a cut wire in the hacked wire harness on the passenger side used a butt connector on the splice gauge now works.
The factory ampmeter is a SHUNT type meter meanning it put a resistor across the main feed wire and measures a little current instead of the full current. Thats why it has such a small wire and the gauge shows 40amps charge-discharge. Thats why when blue bypassed the fuses the wire could not handle the short in the circuit and when it melted it started the whole harness to melt as it started to short everything.
Some aftermarket gauges read the full current thats why you need 10gauge wire to hook them up.