Restoring Rusty

[Gregski]

Guys set me straight here please.

Where does the signal to the voltmeter come from, and what color wire does it travel on?

I know that the oil pressure comes from the oil pressure sending unit via a tan wire, the coolant temp, comes from the coolant temp sensor via a green wire, the fuel level comes from the fuel sending unit via a tan wire. All these wires enter the bulkhead connector and then route directly to the circuit board.

[Chaplain]

Originally Posted by hatzie

My test equipment is military surplus and Hamvention flea market gear so it was not that expensive. I probably have less than $500 in the whole bench. All but the TEK had to be repaired and cleaned up to make them serviceable.
I was able to cherry pick my TEK out of a stack of Surplus scopes and I got lucky.

Once again, "Oh my..." That's why I'll be checking in with you again real soon. It was your insight along with a couple other folks that reassured me that I was buying the correct cluster for my idiot light to gauge conversion.

No thread to prove it but I'm down to the frame and ready to come back up. I'll be installing my gauge cluster and repinning the connector in my 79 real soon.

Keep up the good work and documentation "G".

[Chaplain]

Originally Posted by Gregski

this is what the 1979 gauge cluster pin out looks like actual color wires

Been outside working on my truck all day. This was a great find as I go into resting mode for the evening. I'll be going from a 79 with the idiot light pinning to what you have just posted...I think?

Thank...

[greg64]

Originally Posted by Gregski

Guys set me straight here please.

Where does the signal to the voltmeter come from, and what color wire does it travel on?

I know that the oil pressure comes from the oil pressure sending unit via a tan wire, the coolant temp, comes from the coolant temp sensor via a green wire, the fuel level comes from the fuel sending unit via a tan wire. All these wires enter the bulkhead connector and then route directly to the circuit board.

The voltmeter is just fed from the +12V power that powers up all the other gauges. There is no "signal" wire.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by greg64

The voltmeter is just fed from the +12V power that powers up all the other gauges. There is no "signal" wire.

Thanks the 3 prongs confused me, I looked at it again and two of them are ground on Pin #3 so yep you are correct, than you for the explanation

[Gregski]

yes I am so anal I pulled the proper three prong pink wire instead of splicing in another wire to my old one, it forced me to learn where it goes (same on the '74 as on the '76 by the way but different on the '79)

the screw driver is wedged where it plugs in to the fuse block

[Gregski]

thought this was as good of a time as any to delete the clutch safety switch even though I had the loop thing pluged in there for decades, no sense of wiring such a heavy wire two feet up the steering column if you don't have to

super easy delete, just unplug the connection from the white plug where it plugs in to the clutch switch and take that wire and plug it in to the bulkhead connector directly, this will continue the purple wire path to the starter, job done

[Gregski]

new printed circuit board going on with old clips and semi new light bulbs

[Gregski]

gauges going in...

in the end here's the verdict

Speedo - works

Water Temp - works

Oil Pressure - works

Tachometer - works but is inaccurate

Voltmeter - does not work

Fuel gauge - is missing

[rich weyand]

Originally Posted by Gregski

gauges going in...

in the end here's the verdict

Speedo - works

Water Temp - works

Oil Pressure - works

Tachometer - works but is inaccurate

Voltmeter - does not work

Fuel gauge - is missing

Classic Parts has that fuel gauge -- 50 bucks. You might want to try to scrounge that!

[bilfman]

Gregski the calibration is ez. What I did was hook up a tach under the hood and hooked up the raw factory tach right beside it . As said earlier, that little blue part you solder on has small adjustable dial on it. Just turn it until your factory tach matches the good tach, run a few different rpms and all good. Yeah that dude is an electro tech. But I did it just like I said and is quite easy once you filter out the nerdspeak .

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by rich weyand

Classic Parts has that fuel gauge -- 50 bucks. You might want to try to scrounge that!

Thanks Rich, LMC Truck wants $60 or $70 bucks for the '78 kind

[Gregski]

well enuff of this electronic stuff, let's see what else the Greg has been working on... how about them Visors

first we had to remove the old swivel stick or bracket out of the old ones

not sure if I should be mad at LMC Truck for being such cheap donkeys and not including the swivel sticks when they sell you new visors or thanking them for keeping things so modular

[Gregski]

when we wiped the sticks off a bit we noticed they are labeled R (Right) and L for [wait for it] ... (Left)

and that's why we clean our parts

[Gregski]

so The Greg decided to cut one crispy crusty visor open and see what it is made of

Anatomy of a Visor? are you serious? it's just a ....

oh wait I see, cool thanks, I did not know that's what lurked inside them little rascals ...

[Gregski]

of course nothing's easy but everything must be black, so we used some Denatured Alcohol to wipe off the ol' swivel sticks and tapped them off so that they could be painted black, just using the same semi flat black we used under the hood on the engine bits

to slide them in was a pain, I did not know weather to lube them up with the Rich recommended white lithium grease or slip them in dry, so I split the difference and lubed one up and left the other side dry, LOL

in the pics the sticks are still not slid in all the way, (as I came to find out when I went to mount them)

[rich weyand]

Originally Posted by Gregski

Thanks Rich, LMC Truck wants $60 or $70 bucks for the '78 kind

Here it is:
http://www.classicparts.com/1973-78-.../#.VWSibUZ_yao

[rusty76]

Originally Posted by Gregski

Found one today, $30 bucks! Not perfect but still very solid under that surface rust in the bottom corner. Got it off of a '79

Nice score. Me jealous....lol.

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by rich weyand

Here it is:
http://www.classicparts.com/1973-78-.../#.VWSibUZ_yao

glad you shared the link cause I thought you meant Classic Industries, a totally different company, though it's the same price they don't charge tax

http://www.classicindustries.com/pro...ts/t70841.html

[greg64]

Originally Posted by Gregski

so The Greg decided to cut one crispy crusty visor open and see what it is made of

Anatomy of a Visor? are you serious? it's just a ....

oh wait I see, cool thanks, I did not know that's what lurked inside them little rascals ...

Hey! You found the visors I have in my 64. That's something I need to fix one of these days...

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Gregski

gauges going in...

in the end here's the verdict

Speedo - works

Water Temp - works

Oil Pressure - works

Tachometer - works but is inaccurate

Voltmeter - does not work

Fuel gauge - is missing

Well after threatening to buy a new used voltmeter on eBay, today mine started to work!

[Chaplain]

Updates!

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by Chaplain

Updates!

LOL, The Greg was hurtin' for dough at the end of the month so he had to lay low for a week or so, I mounted the huge clutch pedal spring but there was not much for a picture opportunity

but as of the first of the month he has already ordered the following

1. Brand new fuel gauge

2. Another used Tach off of eBay (for $45 bucks I had to take the risk)

3. Brand new Holley carb tunning kit [more on this later] but it does involve a Test so you all may wanna study up, hee hee

[greg64]

Rusty, how did your visors turn out?

[Gregski]

Originally Posted by greg64

Rusty, how did your visors turn out?

LOL, they're great!