dead ALT gauge to voltmeter swap

[Alvin in AZ]

My son took the voltmeter meters out of a couple Ford vans and put
'em in our 75's speedometers and so replaced the dead ALT gauges.

Anyway, it -reads like- a voltmeter "on the cable clamps" now.

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A hand held analog voltmeter with its leads dug into the battery's
posts (not clamps) acts like this...
1) Reads ~12v (ours does this only after the key is turned on)
2) Drops to ~11v (real good battery) while the starter is cranking.
3) Rises to ~13.5v when it's revved up.

-----------------------

It's a modification I've always wanted instead of the ALT gauge.
...something that'd show that information, see?

The original ALT face is retained.

Only the mechanism behind the ALT face (with its needle) is changed
but some re-wiring and soldering and other tinkering is needed.

Asked about this modification on FTE way-back-when and a guy said
he'd done it but didn't explain anything about what was needed other
than to say it wasn't easy. Well it was easy for my son to do it, did it
to his '75 Farm Truck then did it to mine. I just told him my idea and
he took it from there. LOL

Anyone game to swap their's?

Alvin in AZ

 

[TRUCKIN' AK]

To all the above, YES....

I would like a Volt meter in my 74. I was thinking abiyt sending the original out to RCC Inovations for it to be converted, but if it's something I can do myself, I'd probably give it a shot.

When you have time, it would be great of you to do a write-up that includes the donor vehicle, any wiring and lots of pics for sure...

 

[BuzzGun79]

Very interesting & creative Alvin,but i have the idiot light cluster,so i installed an aftermarket volt meter guage which i prefer over the light.think you could send your boy to Ohio to wire up electrical system so my fuel tanks & gas guage work?....lol i cannot for the life of me figure out what the previous owner was trying to accomplish with this truck its a mess & now ive got to deal with it..o well i new there were going to be issues,its all part of the process of piecing a vehicle together that someone else hacked up.

 

[Evan's f250]

Very interesting & creative Alvin,but i have the idiot light cluster,so i installed an aftermarket volt meter guage which i prefer over the light.think you could send your boy to Ohio to wire up electrical system so my fuel tanks & gas guage work?....lol i cannot for the life of me figure out what the previous owner was trying to accomplish with this truck its a mess & now ive got to deal with it..o well i new there were going to be issues,its all part of the process of piecing a vehicle together that someone else hacked up.

I had to do the same with my truck, lots of "rigged" electric work that wasn't even beginning to be right. As for the gas tanks, do u have dual tanks? Mine does and my gauge wouldn't read on either tank also. I pulled out the cluster, took all the light bulbs and what not off the circuit board of the cluster, then sanded the circuit board with sandpaper to better the connections. I then took both sending units out and worked them back n forth by hand about 5 or 6 times each and put em back in. gas gauge works now.

Before, my gauge always read under "E"

 

[BuzzGun79]

Evan, i got major issues that involve wiring from the dash that isnt there.to feed the tank switch.the solenoid wiring & the rear tank sending unit wiring..aux tank has leads to sending unit.so im gonna start there& see if i can get the guage to read off that tank.will worry about the rest later.i dont want to impede on Alvins thread here & get off his topic..i was being sarcastic about sending his boy here..lol im just not looking forward to this, i hate electrical work & struggle with it as you know.im going to do some studying on the matter & will open my own thread up in time..may even give you a ring..thanks...Bob

 

[Mil1ion]

Yet I love electrical trouble-shooting.

Please send me photos or post a video of what you see

 

[Alvin in AZ]

Get the voltmeter from behind a needle that looks like that.

Still working on the next scan.

Alvin in AZ

 

[Alvin in AZ]

Here's what my son did to my speedometer case...

...shows the holes and wiring modifications.

If I'd've done it I would have used much smaller wire for the jumper.

Any questions?

Alvin in AZ