Pins on the back of gauge circuit board

[bluegrasscharger]

The pins on the back of my gauge circuit board are broken.  Is there a way to fix them?  Seems like I remember someone saying you could use small screws screwed in from the other side instead of soldering the pins back in.  If so, anyone got any pics?

[A383Wing]

I have epoxied the pins back into the plastic...then soldered the pins to make a connection to the circuit board electrical tracks....has worked great so far since I did mine back in the 90's

[bluegrasscharger]

Good idea.  I'll try that.  Now the hard part is getting the cluster out!  The 70 gauge cluster seems to be much harder to remove than a 69 cluster.  Any tips?

[A383Wing]

lower the steering column...and take your time...don't rush it

[bluegrasscharger]

I finally got around to taking my guage cluster out.  I few of my pins are actually missing.  Is there any way to replace  them?  Maybe some kind of really small screw or bolt?  Were the original pins brass?

[A383Wing]

may be better to just get a new board with pins attached....if one pin is missing or loose, the others ain't far behind

[nascarxx29]

Repo circuit boards are available
http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,79537.msg894206/topicseen.html#msg894206

[bluegrasscharger]

I am not really wanting to buy a new one....money is kind of tight right now!  There has got to be a way to add new pins to it.  Would I need to add brass pins or would steel work?

[HANDM]

Steel would be trouble with rust and all....

I would just find some 12 or 14 gauge (whichever fits best) solid core copper wire, strip and clip to size, solder em in and "carefully" install the plug.

If it works cool, if not, nothing ventured nothing gained

Now get on it! 

[bluegrasscharger]

I threaded the holes where the pins where very slighty.  The holes work out perfectly for a 4-40 screw.  This way I can screw the screws in snuggly and then solder them to the circuit board.  I had to grind the threads off slightly so they would fit into the plug.  Looks like it should work but for some reason it does not.  I checked all my gauges with a 9 volt battery and the gauges are working fine.  For some reason it is not getting power. Any ideas?  Is there a way to check this with the 9 volt battery?  Maybe hook the 9 volt battery up to the pins some way?  I bought a new voltage reducer for the gauges but it has a tab on the back of it that the original doesn't have.  Did I get the right one?

[bluegrasscharger]

Here's a pic of the new voltage reducer/limiter.  Is this the right one?  I bought it at Autozone for about $10.  The old one may be ok.  Is there a way to test it?

[bluegrasscharger]

Well I finally got it the gauges working! I ended up taking the circuit back off and cleaning the copper around the holes and the backs of the nuts that hold the gauges with some fine sand paper.  I put it back together and used the new voltage reducer from Autozone....still didn't work.  So I put the old reducer back just to try it and the gauges worked except for the oil pressure gauge.  But the gauge is good so I think it is the oil sending unit.  The gas gauge goes all the way to full but the tank is not full.  Maybe the sending unit in the tank is out of whack?  Any ideas?

[resq302]

If the gauge is going all the way to full there could be a couple of problems.  1- sending unit in the tank is shot, 2- sending unit wire is shorted out somewhere which is causing a direct ground and making the gauge show full, 3- voltage limiter is bad causing 12 volts to go to the 5 volt gauge causing it to read full and will shortly cause the gauge to burn out and fail.

[bluegrasscharger]

If the gauge is going all the way to full there could be a couple of problems.  1- sending unit in the tank is shot, 2- sending unit wire is shorted out somewhere which is causing a direct ground and making the gauge show full, 3- voltage limiter is bad causing 12 volts to go to the 5 volt gauge causing it to read full and will shortly cause the gauge to burn out and fail.

I thought it might be the voltage limiter but the temp gauge was working.  If the limiter is bad wouldn't all the gauges max out?

[resq302]

If the voltage limiter was bad either they would all max out or all not work together.

[y3chargerrt]

Disconnect the fuel sending unit at the tank. If the gauge goes to zero the sending unit is bad. If it stays full then you have a short somewhere.

[bluegrasscharger]

Disconnect the fuel sending unit at the tank. If the gauge goes to zero the sending unit is bad. If it stays full then you have a short somewhere.

So I disconnected the send unit at the tank.  The fuel gauge still goes to full.  So that means there's a short somewhere?  It should be somewhere between the tank and the gauge cluster right?  It's just one wire from the tank to the gauge cluster right?  Also my oil gauge still isn't working but the gauge is good and the oil sending unit is new.  Any thoughts on how to figure out what's going on?

[HANDM]

Check the connection at the drivers kick panel, blue wire 

[bluegrasscharger]

argghhhh!!!   I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH THIS THING!!  I have had this gauge cluster in and out, in and out, in and out, in and out, and it's driving me crazy!  Now the gas gauge seems to be working but the temp gauge is maxing out instead.  But just 10 minutes earlier the temp gauge was fine but the gas gauge wouldn't work.  Then one time they both worked and then gas gauge started going down and went to 0.  WTF!  And the oil pressure gauge hasn't budged at all since the beginning.  This is really getting on my nerves.  do I have hook everything back up to get this to work?  I mean the dash lights, light switches, etc.  I have only been hooking up the alternator wire and the gauge cluster plug and only used a couple screws to hole the cluster in place.  Could it not be grounded enough or something? do I need to just get a new circuit board and a new solid state voltage limiter?  Any ideas as to what is going on?

[bluegrasscharger]

Check the connection at the drivers kick panel, blue wire 

Thanks. I unhooked it at the kick panel and the gauge still maxed out.  So I figured it must be shorting out somewhere between the kick panel to gauge cluster.  Couldn't find anything wrong.  Took the gauge cluster out and put it back in and now the temp gauge maxed out and the gas gauge worked...at least for awhile.  Read my above post for what followed.  This thing is really frustrating.

[randr]

You don't have a new under dash harness do you? If so the plug that goes to those pins on board are sometimes installed wrong in plastic plug! They were on my new year one harness. Find it hard to believe circuit board is bad it's to simple of a circuit...double check 5colored wires on black connector think yellow wire is power should be in left pin.

[bluegrasscharger]

No I don't have new a harness.  It's all original equipment.  Yeah I agree about the circuit board.  There's not much to it.  It seems like some sort of grounding issue.  Not sure what to do.

[y3chargerrt]

Disconnect the taillight harness connector. The wire for the fuel gauge runs in it. If its still high your short is between the connector and the gauge.

[bluegrasscharger]

Disconnect the taillight harness connector. The wire for the fuel gauge runs in it. If its still high your short is between the connector and the gauge.

The one at the kick panel?  I tried that.  But I could find any shorts.  Maybe the circuit board itself is not grounding properly?