Gauge Problems:
- Temperature Gauge Pegs at 'H' around 200 degrees
- Fuel Gauge reads 'E' at a half tank of gas
- Oil Pressure Gauge pegs at high upon start-up
- Voltage Gauge reads fine
The first step was to replace the voltage regulator (previous post). Although everything works now on the cluster, the gauges are sill not reading accurate.
So the next step was to go through and start replacing the sending units. I picked up an Oil Pressure Sending Unit as well as an Temperature Sending Unit from Mustangs Unlimited. After installation of these parts, the oil gauge worked perfectly but the temperature gauge was still running too high.
I was out of ideas for the temperature gauge, so I hit the VMF Message Boards. Someone mentioned adding some resistance to the wire to bring the gauge down so I went and picked up a 1/2W resistor kit and added a 3.5 ohm resistor to the line. This brought the gauge down to where it reads 180 degrees around 3/4ths and creeps up to 'H' around the 220 range. I am now comfortable with both of these gauges and don't feel like I need to freak out when I am sitting in traffic with a temperature gauge pegged at 'H'. Now if I see that the gauge is pegged at 'H' I better get off the road and let it cool down (hasn't happened yet).
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| Temperature Sending Unit |
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| Oil Pressure Sending Unit |
New Gas Tank
Since I was going to be replacing the fuel sending unit, I decided to replace the tank as well. It is at least 30 years old (if not the original) and just a good idea. My guess is the float on the old sending unit has a hole in it that is letting gas get into it and not properly float.
