86-720 Posted January 31, 2016 Report Share Posted January 31, 2016 I just bought a 86 720 and the gas gauge and the temp gauge doesn't work but my speedometer works fine. Any ideas? 1 Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted January 31, 2016 Report Share Posted January 31, 2016 If your turn signals and reverse lights are working, then it's not the fuse. Just in case, find the temp sender wire just below the thermostat cover on the engine side of the upper rad hose. It will have a Yellow/Black stripe wire to it. Ground this to the intake manifold. If the gauge is working but the sender is bad the gauge should read FULL HOT. Likely it won't but better to check. It's unlikely the temp and the fuel gauge senders both decided to fail at the same time, so it's much more likely something common to both such as the voltage regulator. Battery power varies from 12 to over 14 volts and the gauges would vary if you were idling or driving so a voltage regulator is used to produce a steady 8 volt supply to both gauges. Remove the gauge cluster by first pulling some slack up on the speedometer cable from under the vehicle. This will allow room for your hand to un-clip it from the loosened cluster. Dismantle the cluster and access the insides like the picture below. On the center left is a metal strip that is wound with white wire. To the top are brass contacts, one, is an adjustable screw. Use a suitable strip of folded,very fine, emery paper. Open the points and close them on the paper and slowly draw it out several times. This will polish the contacts and restore the voltage regulator function. Welcome to Ratsun 1 Quote Link to comment
86-720 Posted January 31, 2016 Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2016 Thank you I will give this a shot! 1 Quote Link to comment
Rhino13 Posted January 31, 2016 Report Share Posted January 31, 2016 Every once in a while my gas and temp gauges stop working, and at one point I took it apart and had it fixed for a few months, but it came back so now a good swift smack on the dash gets them going again. 4 Quote Link to comment
Charlie69 Posted January 31, 2016 Report Share Posted January 31, 2016 So Rhino says, "get a BFH (Big F___ing Hammer)"!!! LOL 1 Quote Link to comment
84720FourWheel Posted February 1, 2016 Report Share Posted February 1, 2016 Sometimes gear oil wicks up the speedo cable and makes a mess. I cleaned it out when I put LEDs in and my temp gauge started reading correctly. 1 Quote Link to comment
86-720 Posted March 15, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 15, 2016 I just got around to this and I still couldn't get either one to work and then I went to put it all back together and now the speedometer doesn't work. Any ideas what could be going on? 1 Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted March 16, 2016 Report Share Posted March 16, 2016 Speedometer cable needs to be clipped into the speedometer gauge at the back. Do your turn signals work? If no then the 4th fuse to the right is blown. This also powers the gauges. 1 Quote Link to comment
86-720 Posted March 17, 2016 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2016 I snapped the cable back into the gauge when I went to test drive it to see if it worked it made a spinning / jumping sound and the needle would jump up to like 50 and then not move . Any ideas Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted March 17, 2016 Report Share Posted March 17, 2016 The square end of the inner cable has to find the hole in the gauge. Usually it turns once or twice and falls in. Quote Link to comment
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