I was replacing a gauge on my wifes 70 Ford F100, and the gauge looked familiar. I took one of the gauges out of my 52 cluster and it looked exactly the same, except for the face and the mount. I went to the junkyard and picked up an instrument cluster from a 69 F100 with a V8. After removing the face from both the 52 gauge and the 69 gauge I saw that both were the same except the 69 was 12 volt. You only need the FUEL, TEMP, and ALT. The F1 BAT gauge is a wire feed through type and reads amps not voltage, so it should continue to work Very carefully remove the faces from the F1 gauges. Work at the bottom of the needle side. Just raise the bent corners that holds the face and slide it off. Do the reverse to put the F1 faces on the F100 gauges. Now unbolt the mountings on the back of the F1 gauges and mount them on the F100 gauges. Now you have 12 volt gauges for your F1 without the expense. There is one setback for the 51/52 F1's. One of the 51/52 gauges is reversed. On mine it was the TEMP gauge, The new gauge reads backwards. I fixed that by scratching off the C and H and reversed them using a fine point Magic Marker.
With some care you can swap needles between them, too. I had to take one out because the needle had been painted to the bi-metal. NOS is not always good. There is no 12V or 6V guage - they are actually all the same. The 12V cars used a voltage regulator (which you should have on the back of your later cluster). Look here at post #10. Beyond that, they're all interchangeable to get the travel direction right. You can use an oil guage for temperature if you put the right face on it, for example.
This was posted by 296V8 quite some time ago: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18330 He mentions F600, so perhaps it runs across the F-series truck line. And 40Tudor is correct - all Ford gauges were 6V until very late in the game (80s-90s) and will have a small CVR on the back of the cluster somewhere. Here's a good thread that includes pics of the CVR: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18330
First off the newer gauges are wired for 12 volts. The wiring is slightly different. I put 6 volts to the old gauges, and 12 volts to the new gauges, and measured the current. Both are the same. Remember, these gauges are not only voltage operated, but thermal operated as well. I opened that square can that everyone has been calling a voltage reducer. It is a thermal operated surge protector. Some makers call it a voltage stabilizer, some call it a surge protector, and others call it a current limiting device. What it is NOT, is a voltage reducer. What it does is to protect the gauges from burning up in the event of a voltage or current increase above the 7.6 (6 volt) or 13.6 (12 volt) norm.
What you guy's are referring to is what Ford calls a "slosh module". It's used to prevent current spikes in the fuel gauge and the other gauges causing the needles to bounce back and forth. So basically, it's a surge protector. It doesn't reduce the voltage. Lakota is correct.
Lakota, Many Ford gauges from the 40's thru the 80 can be swapped around with minor work.. I have noticed that the mounting holes may need a little rouund file work on some gauges to fit larger stud widths...
Here's the sad part. When I posted the question about upgrading my gauges, The Ford Truck Enthusiasts, (worlds foremost authority on Fords, according to them), said that I would have to buy aftermarket gauges. They even suggested that I buy the $600 replacements. I posted the same question on Club Hot Rod and was told that if I ever find an answer to that to let them know. I should have joined this site three years ago.
A slosh module does exactly what the name implies,When you turn a corner or come to a fast stop the slosh module slows down the action of the fuel sender in the tank.It only appies to the fuel guage.As for the rest of the guages,Fords guages were 6 volt up untill the early nineties.I rewired a 54 ford for a guy 25 years ago and,coverted to 12 volts using the original guages and a seventies voltage limiter i got from the junk yard.To this day they are still working! I think speedway and jc whitney sell seperate reducers for about $20.00 for each guage.One of the main reasons for 12 volt ford guage failure is the voltage limiter letting 12 volts to the guages....................rewired
If you need a voltage reducter, use Mart's - PM him, see his HAMB-O-Dex, or his classified advert... Cheap, easy, & work well. ...and he wears funny hats! (no, I don't get a commission, thought I should!)
I'm on the FTE site a lot, don't recall seeing your post. Was it on the '48-'60 forum? There are enough of us scattered across FTE, the MSN flathead forum, and here that someone should have nixed the aftermarket route. I used a NAPA #IR1 (instrument regulator) for a mid-60's Ford, what I understand to be a CVR. It does the trick but I'd admit my gauges don't read the same as when they were on 6v. I think I'll try your trick!
Albuq, I had to post on FTE through a friend and he mentioned that the tip came from me, not knowing that I'm banned from FTE. I put a Ford body on a Chevy frame with a Chevy engine...pissed everybody off on FTE. I got hate e-mail for weeks. One day I couldn't get on, so I registered under a different name. I got on, but I can't post...They still hate me. Like I really care. They probably pulled the post.
BTTT this is awesome info, and deserves to make the rounds again, for folks that missed it the first time! ~Jason
i had a complete 1970 ford cluster for sale with a vacuum gauge $65.00 at york pa, at syracuse ny. no sale. don't bother saving these as it wasn't worth my time to remove and bring to the swap meet for the $20.00 offers i got. very disapointing. i should of crushed them with the truck and then everyone would say...you should of saved them, us cheap fucks could of used them....no wonder everything gets crushed. if you see me at a swap meet and you are a cheap fuck ,do us both a favor and keep on walking. cadillac dave
did it ever occur to You that perhaps You were asking too much for them? I mean, they did come in EVERY FORD TRUCK ever built. They're not exactly rare, Dave. Hell, if I sat outside and counted every 70 through 80 ford truck that drove by today, I would reach 25 before lunch. so Yeah, throw 'em in the crusher and squeeze the guts out of 'em, simply because YOU overpriced some otherwise cheap stuff that someone has a defiitive need for. Meantime, I will keep killing Caddies.
Those instrument voltage reducers provide a square wave, 12 volts, 1/2 the time, for an average of 6 volts. Put a volt meter to it, it reads 12, 0, 12, 0. The gauges move slowly enough to damp the pulsing. If you put a straight 12 volts to the instruments they will read incorrectly. They work like a blinker. A set of points close providing 12 volts, it heats up, expanding and opening the points. When it cools the points close again. On 1/2 the time, off the other.
wow ever time I have been on FTE I was treated like family.. You should try again ,those guys love to help...and mosts don't care that you have a chevy motor in your ford truck..like I have ..
i hear that shit a LOT from guys who make a living on ebay or swap meets... "cheap fuckers, i'd rather scrap it than sell it that cheap" so, whats stopping you? lot of fuckers think that their stuff is made from solid platinum and wont take less than a platinum price, cause "i seen one like it go on ebay for eleventeen hunnert bux!!!"
Right? I have a metric TON of Good to great Pontiac heads. They're worth about a c-note for a pair. I hear how they will bring sooo much more at a swap meet, or on E-Bay. know why I don't try to pull that crap? Because they will only ever be worth a hundred bucks to me. I let people who could use them know I have them, and otherwise...they're not doing anyone any harm shelved. I can honestly say I have never torn apart a car with the express purpose of selling it's innards. (not that there is anything wrong with it) but how the heck do You price it? pluck some number out of thin air? use E-Bay as a standard? (which is funny....two dipshits get in a bidding war over some n.o.s. doodad, and suddenly every similar doodad is worth it's weight in gold. go screw!) There is a yard outside of Austin in a town called "mustang ridge" there are SCADS of very buildable projects in it, along with aboot 40 zillion useable parts. the owner has a "it's all the money, or it's getting crushed" mentality. what a bushel of bullshit.
Thanks...you're exactly right. I put an anolog volt-meter to one just because I was curious and found the same thing. They'll save your 6 volt gauges [used in fords and IHCs up through the 70s] from 12 volts. The 70 and later ford clusters used a printed circuit on the back of the cluster and they still used the "voltage limiter" as my ford dealter calls it, but it was a plug-in unti not user friendly for hot rods. The 69 and earlier ford pickups used one that has wire connectors [spade connectors, I believe]. I've used these for years and bought them both ways, used and new. I've never found a bad one at the junk yard [I test them] and when I went to the ford dealer, I was charged $18 for one! I stick to junk-yard limiters now. I've also used them on GM products that use 6 volts and had good luck. I've found the 6 volt [ford and GM] fuel gauges work great with these wired into the "feed" circuit of the gauge panel.
I don't like the square-wave choppers that Ford used as there is no regulation other than the gauge & sender itself. Works well enough I suppose, but the thought of cheap OEM tech repulses me when it's an obvious band-aid. A much better bet is to get a true 6V CVR (constant voltage regulator) like the one Mart sells. You get 6V no matter what the output of the charging system (with the chopper, you get half whatever voltage is coming out) - this means more stable and accurate gauges. Of course, the OEM ones are nearly free at the junkyard!!
It may not be obvious, but the case of the CVR's needs to be grounded for the heating element to work.
Ford gauges are all 6v at least into the mid 80's. I had to replace the gauge voltage regulator on my 86 F150.
This is great info. And just in time. Well said Tom. There is alot of knowledge over there. I don't like the advertising based format but still lots of good info.
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