midlife
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- Jan 24, 2012
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- Tucson, AZ
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- No Mustangs at the moment.
Jeff73Mach1 kindly sent me a 71 standard dash cluster for an experiment: can the crappy circuit card be eliminated and the dash cluster hard-wired for greater reliability?
I don't believe anyone has attempted this, so I'm going to attempt it. The dash cluster has 14 bulb sockets, two posts for the fuel gauge, and contacts for the constant voltage regulator (snap-on clips). I'm kind of surprised that the cluster is basically all lamps, and I was planning on using the snap-in 2 wire sockets used in 64.5-68, which I have a ton of. So...I tried fitting them in, and nope...the holes in the dash cluster are too small. I know the cluster uses 194 bulbs, but every catalog says that the 1895 bulbs are used for the instrument cluster for 71-73. WRONG! There's no bulb chart in the 71 FSM that I could find for the instrument cluster, so I went to my Wiring and Vacuum Diagrams that the service technicians used: yup...194 bulbs.
OK...there's many sockets for 194 bulbs, but the instrument cluster sockets are fairly unique, as there are no wire pigtails, just contacts to the circuit board. OK...they lock into place...1/2" in size. Does anyone make a replacement with pigtails? After spending 1.5 hours Googling, I think I found a replacement locking socket, and they should be here by the end of the week.
For the CVR, I plan on replacing the 71-73 version with the 66 version which has spade lugs.
I'll take pictures as I start working on this, and with luck, I should have a working dash cluster by the end of the weekend. I have a 12V power supply so I can actually test everything on the bench.
If successful, I'll then figure out if it is economical to do this, and if so, what the costs might be.
This should be interesting! And thanks, Jeff!
I don't believe anyone has attempted this, so I'm going to attempt it. The dash cluster has 14 bulb sockets, two posts for the fuel gauge, and contacts for the constant voltage regulator (snap-on clips). I'm kind of surprised that the cluster is basically all lamps, and I was planning on using the snap-in 2 wire sockets used in 64.5-68, which I have a ton of. So...I tried fitting them in, and nope...the holes in the dash cluster are too small. I know the cluster uses 194 bulbs, but every catalog says that the 1895 bulbs are used for the instrument cluster for 71-73. WRONG! There's no bulb chart in the 71 FSM that I could find for the instrument cluster, so I went to my Wiring and Vacuum Diagrams that the service technicians used: yup...194 bulbs.
OK...there's many sockets for 194 bulbs, but the instrument cluster sockets are fairly unique, as there are no wire pigtails, just contacts to the circuit board. OK...they lock into place...1/2" in size. Does anyone make a replacement with pigtails? After spending 1.5 hours Googling, I think I found a replacement locking socket, and they should be here by the end of the week.
For the CVR, I plan on replacing the 71-73 version with the 66 version which has spade lugs.
I'll take pictures as I start working on this, and with luck, I should have a working dash cluster by the end of the weekend. I have a 12V power supply so I can actually test everything on the bench.
If successful, I'll then figure out if it is economical to do this, and if so, what the costs might be.
This should be interesting! And thanks, Jeff!