Guage Cluster

rotorhead22

Active Member
Dec 17, 2020
169
92
38
Wesley Chapel, Florida
#1
And the fun just keeps on coming. I discovered that my alternator upgrade wasnt work and following the troubleshooting chart that is posted on Stangnet, I removed the guage cluster to find a complete mess of burnt copper ribbon and what not. So I guess the car is telling me to install the new cluster from New Vintage gauges. Better than fuel problems.
 

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#2
Definitely a wiring mess back there.

You can repair the ribbon cable by soldering a jumper. If it's busted in a few spots, buy a used 4 cyl cluster from the same year span. You can use the ribbon cable off that. Other than the tach and speedometer it's the same stuff. Nice to have some spare components as well.

Of course, the other wires needs to be fixes as well such as that loose white wire. Who knows what the red wire tapped into the voltage pin on the reverse was being used for
 
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#4
The guy I bought the car from had this he just never installed it. I was procrastinating on tackling this however it’s unavoidable now
 

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#6
So after studying the wire schematic for the stock cluster panel I am left scratching my head as to why the red/light green coil wire is connected to the cluster panel? I know that I need to jump the green/red wire for the alternator but why the coil connection
 
#7
the pinouts are different form 87 to 89 and 90 to 93 . When I did mine on my 90 i think i jumped 2 to 14 on the passenger side.. 87 to 89 jump 5 to 6 on the driver side connector. #5 is the coil/batt pin. If memory serves me right its a 50ohm? resistor inline to simulate the check engine light resistance.



 
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#8
After reviewing the diagrams and gauges again, I failed to realize that the red/light green wire goes to the "I (ignition)" post on each gauge for switched power. Sometimes you just have to step away from it and come back later.
 
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#12
rotorhead22 said:
So after connecting the light green/red and the red/green wires I discovered that my 3g alternator wasn't charging and after a few days of multimeter work I found out that the new voltage regulator was fried. The money pit got deeper
Click to expand...

You have to put a resistor between the two wires; can't just be connected. If you look at the printed circuit on your factory instrument cluster there should be a resistor on the alternator circuit. That's to bypass the light bulb if it blows so that your alternator continues to charge. Just rip that resistor out of the printed circuit and use it. If you didn't have a resistor there, it's possible that's what caused your voltage regulator to fail.

Kurt
 
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