Fuel gauge conversion for 66 Charger

[ludollic]

Hello, I'm French so sorry if my words are not all right, I'm Ludovic, I live in the south of France and I just bought a 1967 Dodge Charger and as many, lighting, fuel gauge, alternator, temperature and oil pressure doesn't work, I've disassembled everything and the insulated Nichrome wire is black in the fuel gauge , so I must rebuild it, one of you could tell me what Nichrome wire I must buy? and if you have any advice it will be with great pleasure, thank you all

 

[ODZKing]

The fellow to ask of this is https://thegaugedoc.com/

 

[Ray70Chrg]

Can this also be true on '70 rally dashboard gas gauge? Is the meter designed the same way? I suddenly have very little movement on gas gauge even though I put 10 gals. of gas in very empty tank. I checked the tank connections and grounding strap and was good. This is the first I've heard of blacked out nichrome wires in the gauges.

 

[ODZKing]

Mark would be the one to ask

 

[ludollic]

The fellow to ask of this is https://thegaugedoc.com/

Thanks but I already read this article, very interesting, it does not say the characteristics of the Nichrome isolated wire, is that I search to rebuild my gauges, in France there is no one to do it, I have to fend for myself, thank you

 

[GassMann]

Bonjour Ludovic,
I don't speak French but I know how to use Google to translate. Did you have any luck figuring out how to repair your dash gauges? I rebuilt mine a few years ago but only the cones work and a few of the needles glow orange/red. I am trying to figure out what wire wraps around the needles to electrify them. I am also looking for the red/orange paint that glows when electrified.

Merci mon ami...

 

[twecomm]

Hi Ludovic, Welcome to the forum. In a stock 66-67 Charger, the Fuel, temperature and oil pressure gauges all work off the 5 volt regulator. The 5 volt regulator is a mechanical device located inside the fuel gauge with the points type contacts. The wire you describe that's "burned up" may be the voltage regulator. Doubt you will find that excat type wire anywhere.
The best move is to replace it with a solid state unit from: https://www.rt-eng.com/index.php/RTE_limiter.html But..
before you do you need to verify that all the gauges that use the 5 volts are not also burned up due to failure of that mechanical
5 V. regulator.
If you need your entire gauge cluster revived The Gauge Doc is who you need to send it to. If your alternator gauge does not work, it is likely that previous owner electrically bypassed it as many do with this era Mopar. Good Luck.

 

[GassMann]

Hi Ludovic, Welcome to the forum. In a stock 66-67 Charger, the Fuel, temperature and oil pressure gauges all work off the 5 volt regulator. The 5 volt regulator is a mechanical device located inside the fuel gauge with the points type contacts. The wire you describe that's "burned up" may be the voltage regulator. Doubt you will find that excat type wire anywhere.
The best move is to replace it with a solid state unit from: https://www.rt-eng.com/index.php/RTE_limiter.html But..
before you do you need to verify that all the gauges that use the 5 volts are not also burned up due to failure of that mechanical
5 V. regulator.
If you need your entire gauge cluster revived The Gauge Doc is who you need to send it to. If your alternator gauge does not work, it is likely that previous owner electrically bypassed it as many do with this era Mopar. Good Luck.

Thanks TweComm - I am actually Gassmann and I was replying to Ludovic but I REALLY appreciate the info. My Charger has not had power to in in over 30 years. I rebuilt the dash wiring harness a year ago and painted the who car last July. I am no in solid assembly mode and the dash it next. I am going to use LED's throughout the car and will dig through the RTE Limiter and do some testing before I install the dash. Again, thanks for the data and contact.

Cheers...

 

[GassMann]

Hi Ludovic, Welcome to the forum. In a stock 66-67 Charger, the Fuel, temperature and oil pressure gauges all work off the 5 volt regulator. The 5 volt regulator is a mechanical device located inside the fuel gauge with the points type contacts. The wire you describe that's "burned up" may be the voltage regulator. Doubt you will find that excat type wire anywhere.
The best move is to replace it with a solid state unit from: https://www.rt-eng.com/index.php/RTE_limiter.html But..
before you do you need to verify that all the gauges that use the 5 volts are not also burned up due to failure of that mechanical
5 V. regulator.
If you need your entire gauge cluster revived The Gauge Doc is who you need to send it to. If your alternator gauge does not work, it is likely that previous owner electrically bypassed it as many do with this era Mopar. Good Luck.

BTW... do you happen to know how to get the needles to light up? There was a filament wire that carried the 200v AC power from the power pack. Some of those wires burned up due to a ground problem. I would like to fix that as well while I am in there. Maybe a call the Gauge Doc is due.

 

[gibber]

The needles use the same phosphorus coating as the gauge faces. They are extremely hard to rebuild. I have about a 75 percent success rate. Luckily I also have many spares,. Feel free to call or email, contact info is on my website, www.thegaugedoc.com.

 

[GassMann]

The needles use the same phosphorus coating as the gauge faces. They are extremely hard to rebuild. I have about a 75 percent success rate. Luckily I also have many spares,. Feel free to call or email, contact info is on my website, www.thegaugedoc.com.

Wow... so the gauge faces are green but the needles are red/orange. How do you achieve the color difference?

 

[gibber]

The normal color for the EL is a greenish color. The needles are painted with an orange translucent paint. If the paint was stripped off, the needles would be green as well.