got some ques. re: new dash guages

[BUXMAN66]

got my new tach dash installed this w/end. some of the problems i've noticed are that the temp. guage is pegged all the way over way past "hot"....actually off the guage.my old temp. guage worked fine in my old dash. any help/ideas? also my fuel guage is reading "full", when it actually should be just below a 1/2 tank....do i need to unhook my fuel guage sending wire at my fuse box to re-set? the fuel guage was on approx. 3/8 -1/2 tank when i put the dash in so it has actually moved only a 1/2 tank of reading,as now it's on full to maybe just under. just thinking maybe the guage/sending unit needs to be reset to empty and then plugged in to the fuse box....which should bring it up to the actual amount of fuel that i really have. anybody unnerstand what i'm trying to say!?........ to back-track on the temp. guage issue,... i unhooked my wire at the engine for the temp. guage and it was still reading in the "red".......a couple of thumps on the face and on the back of the guage did bring it down some but not much.........any ideas on what happenin' here? btw...... all guages worked fine on the old dash

[FRENCHBLUE72]

How about running a ground from the dash to the guage pannel??

[Baradium]

If I read this correctly, you went from the mechanical temp guage to a electric temp guage that is causing the problem. I believe it was '71 or '72 before the gauge dashes has electric temp (I know my '70 has mechanical temp at least along with the mechanical oil pressure).

Thanks,
Ryan

[BUXMAN66]

frenchblue72.....not sure if i understand what your saying...the guage/dash pnl. is already grounded through the plug,..correct?barradium,... i have the exact style of temp. guage as i had before in the dash i just took out......electrical , mechanical whatever the he!! it is. it's the factory guage put it that way!!lol

[FRENCHBLUE72]

I was having problem's with the guage's and lighting and ran a ground wire from the pannel to the dash and it solved my problem's..

[BUXMAN66]

don't believe i've ever did that b-4,....like i said the ground should be the black wire in the bundle that "plugs-in" the back of the dash assembly......hey, whatever works right?lol

[BUXMAN66]

ttt

[Longhorn Man]

There is actually supposed to be a ground strap going from teh inst panel to the dash. I would ground it first thing before doing anything else.
The temp guage sounds like a definate ground problem...like the whole inst panel is using it for a ground. (seen it happen).
The temp guage was never mechanical on these trucks. The only mechanical ones are the oil and speedo. Air pressure and vacume was mechanical, but they were on the big trucks only.

[BUXMAN66]

good to hear from ya andy... i know you have a lot of knowledge 'bout these trucks. (no disrespect to frenchblue,and barradium!) so, should i use one of the sheet-metal screws that holds the rear cover on for an attachment point on the back of the dash or one of the threaded posts of one of the individual guages? i don't believe i was using a grounding wire/strap but what the hell... i'll try it.what do you think about what i had said 'bout the fuel guage? i ran a search on "fuel guage" and never seen anything related to what i'm experiencing.....thanks for any help.....

[Longhorn Man]

I got a ground strap and bolted it to the metal on teh inst panel, and then run it under one of the screws that holds on the inst panel inbetween the pnale and the dash. Kinda a pain to put in, but totally invisable. The stock one would just clip tot eh dash sheet metal.
The fuel guage is kinda funny, i too have never seen one do that. You could have a problem with the printed circuit, but it could be a bad ground too.

I may be totally wrong on this. How do your dash lights and your blinker lights work?
Turn on your blinkers and see if your 2 messed up guages move. (that would kinda confirm a ground issue.)

[71Chev]

Did you change the temp sender when you converted from idiot light dash to gauges? You need to get a temp sender for a gauge type cluster, the one for the idiot light cluster won't work.
If you changed fuel gauges also, it makes me think the fuel gauge in the new instrument panel may be bad or did you get the fuel sender wires relocated correctly in the loom plug that plugs into the back.

[BUXMAN66]

as i had said in the opening post .....everything worked fine!temp. guage .....worked perfect. i had already did the conversion from a idiot light dash to a full guage dash.....and used pauls site to change over my wiring bundle and the pins in the plug.sending unit works good(temp.) and the fuel guage worked fine too. the needle was perfectly in alignment w/ the "E" and also the""FULL" lines.gonna make me a ground wire/strap when i get into work today. (2nd shifter) i'll double check the lights and the turn signals also for further evidence of a ground problem. thanks guys....

[pbmcauliffe]

Sounds like a ground issue to me also, I have wired in a few dashes in these trucks, and converted a few to tach style dashes and the only problem I ever encountered was ground related.

[BUXMAN66]

thanks for taking the time to reply,guys!!

[Blue Beard]

Have to agree with the majority, sounds like a ground issue..........

[BUXMAN66]

i ran a ground wire from the metal backing plate to the metal framework of the dash on the truck's body. still not working properly... temp. guage is pegged past "hot",and the fuel guage is rotated over beyond "F"......needle is pointing to 3:00 in relation to a clock face. went ahead and diconnected everything,dropped the column a bit to get the dash out. prolly gonna have to send it back to PT 70 CST (board member) who i bought it off of on e-bay. luckily, he has said to send it back to him if there's any problems..... many thanks to him for being up-standing in respect to this. i did notice that after i diconnected the dash and pulled it out that the needle on the temp. guage seemed to be "stuck"....after shaking the dash several times on it's side it seemed to move itself some.....and after more shaking it returned back to the line and the small area representing "cold".i looked at my old dash and the needle moves very freely in the temp. guage..... and my last reading of the fuel guage (which is exactly what i have of fuel in the tank) is exactly 3/8 of a tank.the needle in the fuel guage does not move if you stand it on end and let gravity move it. so i'm pretty sure the fuel guage is not correct in the new dash. checked my fuel sending unit wire at the fuse box and used a test light on the fuse box "prong" and the fuel guage went clear over to 3:00 !!

[Primered_69]

why not just swap out the gauges from your old unit that were working into the new one? It would still get you the tach you want and all the gauges swap out pretty easy.

[BUXMAN66]

instead of hashing it out on this thread i'm going to let the person i bought it off of take care of the problem.......there's a certain amount of risk in anything i guess......all indications are that he's a stand up guy.