Gauges not working

[My78truck]

Hello -

Refurbing interior and dash of my 1978 Chevy C10. My original gauges were not very pretty anymore. Saw that I could get overlays, but concerned about them peeling away with time and heat/cold. Was at my now favorite bone yard and came across a pristine set of gauges. I know you are always taking a chance, but they LOOKED so good!!!! and so brought them home. I installed them into the cluster backing after replacing the printed circuit panel and cleaning up the clips. When I start and warm up my truck, they do not register.

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All instrument cluster lights work as well as cab/cargo lights. They just are not registering. I know there is a possible/probable problem with fuel sending unit so not concerned about that quiet yet. Please help. Pics attached showing original cluster with needle positions as well as fast, mid and low idle pics for newish gauges. I am sure I am going to be told to buy new gauges, but is there anyway to test these first? I am unfamiliar with proper way to test so please explain in laymans terms. I know what a multi meter is and have a small one I can use.

Thanks

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[custodian]

Bad connections.

 

[My78truck]

Okay, everything is solidly in place, the circuit panel does not have any lifts or tears or burn spots, all the clips were cleaned with electronic cleaner and a wire brush. So what "connections" are you talking about? I plan on replacing the cluster fuse tomorrow. This is a picture of the block. Some of the fuses are truly 40+ years old. I am going to go through and replace all of them one-by-one and clean the contacts. Unless you think not a good idea.

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[Snoots]

Check the ground connection.

 

[My78truck]

Okay, new at this and learning from you experts. Where is the ground?

 

[My78truck]

Okay, thank you for all your help. I popped the 4 amp fuse, sprayed with electrical contact cleaner, used a folded piece of sand paper, sprayed again with contact cleaner, put dielectric grease on cleaned contacts, inserted fuse and VOILA' I have gauges again. Thank you so much for walking me through this. Moving on to cleaning all the other contacts and replacing the fuses. All the fuses seem to be AGC. I assume I have to stick with AGC's.

 

[Snoots]

Glad to hear you got it! Thanks for posting that you did!

The ground I was referring to is mounted to the left kickpanel next to the parking brake.

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[AuroraGirl]

I had a .5amp fuse In a 77 ford Ltd that was incredibly small amd difficult to locate a new one. It caused A LOT of issues on the dash cluster. Glad your fuse was a simple fix amd is still available to purchase. Nice cluster

 

[Bextreme04]

It will often be a set of prongs actually attached to the parking brake frame. Take all the connections off, clean and scuff liberally, squeeze some good quality dielectric grease(I use Dow Corning 4) on the connector end and put it back on.

 

[AuroraGirl]

It will often be a set of prongs actually attached to the parking brake frame. Take all the connections off, clean and scuff liberally, squeeze some good quality dielectric grease(I use Dow Corning 4) on the connector end and put it back on.

I was surprised when mine was flawless. Of all the things on my rust bucket it wasn’t the aluminum tc it was the ground bus to be corrosion free. Does OP have manual transmission ? I noticed my safety switch wire was routed poorly and when I snagged the wire it pulled something off the ground bus