Gauge gremlins aka instrument cluster resto, the results!

[DC_1]

You tail lights or brake lights not working shouldn't have any relation to your cluster rebuild. I think it is just coincidental. It's an old car and over time corrosion, moisture and 40 years of vibration can cause a lot of poor contact in connections. Your just going to have to eliminate and trace the problem step by step..

[AirborneSilva]

yeah I hate electrical too!  Now that you mention it the flashers work off of the same circuit as the turn signals, I got my signals crossed (pun intended  ), but if the flashers work then that does confuse things more   well for me anyway.  I'd still get that tool and start working my way forward from the tail light.  I am NOT looking forward to doing my wire harness, I may save up some money and have someone do it for me.....  

[Dino]

You tail lights or brake lights not working shouldn't have any relation to your cluster rebuild. I think it is just coincidental. It's an old car and over time corrosion, moisture and 40 years of vibration can cause a lot of poor contact in connections. Your just going to have to eliminate and trace the problem step by step..

I'm not sure if that's good news or bad news.   

[AirborneSilva]

You tail lights or brake lights not working shouldn't have any relation to your cluster rebuild. I think it is just coincidental. It's an old car and over time corrosion, moisture and 40 years of vibration can cause a lot of poor contact in connections. Your just going to have to eliminate and trace the problem step by step..

I'm not sure if that's good news or bad news.   

Good news is you have a sweet Charger  bad news is those damn little gremlins!

[Dino]

You tail lights or brake lights not working shouldn't have any relation to your cluster rebuild. I think it is just coincidental. It's an old car and over time corrosion, moisture and 40 years of vibration can cause a lot of poor contact in connections. Your just going to have to eliminate and trace the problem step by step..

I'm not sure if that's good news or bad news.   

Good news is you have a sweet Charger  bad news is those damn little gremlins!

  Yeah you're right, I need to focus more on the positive and be happy with what I have.  I guess I'm a bit frustrated because everything worked as it should when I parked it, yet within one week of getting it back I have no functional small gauges save the alt gauge, no light on that side of the cluster, no clock and no speedometer yet odomoter works, no brake lights on ds and now the battery died!  Oh and the tires are too small!  Oh wait...yeah that was a problem before I parked it, nevermind!   

[AirborneSilva]

Sounds like you are doing good 

[tan top]

 been trying to think  ,  what you might have disturbed getting the instrument cluster out ,  to cause the rear brake lights not to work one side
like others say could check connection  behind the kick panel area  &  stop lamp switch ,
not sure if it would be worth checking the turn signal steering  column wiring connector    also
also a dirty contacts in the hazard lamp switch can cause problems with turn signals hazards ,
   there is nothing as far as i can remember to do with the actual instrument cluster that can affect the brake lamps 

[Troy]

If the brake lights aren't working on one side it's probably in the trunk. I'm trying to remember where the wire harness splits. The brakes are either all or nothing from the switch - unlike the signal lamps which have to work one side or the other.

Is it a guarantee that the brake lights worked every time before it was parked? I know it wasn't consistent right after you got it going again recently. Are you sure both sides of the flashers work? I remember them going out with the brake lights. Maybe it's that speedometer cable...

Troy

[AirborneSilva]

Maybe it's that speedometer cable...

Troy

I'm thinking his flux capacitor isn't putting out enough gigawatts 

[Dino]

Alright you two, rub it in!   

Troy I think the speedometer cable is the culprit of everything that is wrong with the car.   
I know both brake lights worked when I was taking pictures of it a few days before I drove it down.  There is always the possibility that they quit working right after that so I cannot say for certain that they worked.  I remember they didn't work at first startup, but once the cluster was in they did.

Funny you should say that Tony, I almost bought a Delorean when I sold the prrevious Charger.  I'm glad I didn't, their electrical is even worse than on our cars!

Tan Top even if the brakes have nothing to do with the cluster I will take it back apart and clean all the contacts so I can at least rule out certain things.

[AirborneSilva]

Funny you should say that Tony, I almost bought a Delorean when I sold the prrevious Charger.  I'm glad I didn't, their electrical is even worse than on our cars!

Long story short - I almost met him and he almost went into business with my parents, they were looking for funding for our dairy farm in 1981 (the government screwed us but that's another story), on his was to the U.S. he got busted instead, glad we didn't go into business with him but because of the screwing we got from the government we ended up going out of business.... 

[DC_1]

I still don't think your brake light problem is related to your cluster rebuild. There just simply is no reason the 2 would be related.

[Dino]

Yeah I heard a lot of people got taken when Delorean got busted.  What a shame...

DC_1 I'm sure your right, correlation is not causation so I accept it must be a coincedence.  I'll crawl in the trunk this afternoon and see what I can find.

Despite all the problems it has now I was way happy when I turned the key this morning and it fired right up.  It was once again a fun ride into work.  

Btw, the chrome on the bezels can now officially be named chrome cause it blinded the hell out of me driving into work!      

[DC_1]

Courtesy of 69 Charger Registry

[Dino]

Courtesy of 69 Charger Registry

Chris must've cut me off cause all I see is a little red x.  

EDIT:  It's working now!  Thanks buddy!

[DC_1]

http://www.1969chargerregistry.com/pictures/body.jpg

[Dino]

So it looks like the black wire is feeding the taillights while the dark green is feeding the ds brake lights, the problem must be there.  A brown wire is feeding the ps brake lights and they work fine.  I'm glad they have seperate feeds for the sides or I would have no brake lights at all.  The dark green wire does go to the instrument panel wiring though, maybe I mangled it putting the cluster in.

I also have a wire with connector in the dash that's not hooked up to anything.  It's brown with a tracer so I need to find out where that goes.  I have the fsm at home so I'll browse through it tonight.

EDIT:  I found the intrument wiring on the registry site and it seems there's a brown with tracer going to the wiper switch.  I thought that the only things on there were the big plug and the single brown (without tracer) wire going to the washer switch, which btw also quit working.  Wipers do work though, both speeds.  Slow and oh come on!..   

[Dino]

Just found this:

"Brown with the white tracer goes on the bottom spade, this is a resistor wire that is only used with the 3 speed wiper switch."

And that's one more riddle solved...

[Dino]

With my new battery in place I drove to work this morning, and this afternoon since iit was so nice out I rolled down the windows and took the scenic route home.  It took me a good half hour to notice the clock was running!  So apparently 10.4 volts is not enough for the little devil!

As soon as I got home I asked the wife to check the taillights and brake lights, yep it all works!

So it seems boys and girls, when half of an elecrical system stops working, you may want to check your battery.   

I still have the cluster to fix but I feel a bit better now.  The turn signal cam is also getting worse, but that's another story.

[DC_1]

Sweet!!!

[AirborneSilva]

Good to hear some of the gremlins are being exorcised 

[Dino]

One by one we're putting those gremlins in a blender! 

Since I will be taking the cluster back out I migh as well go ahead and replace the voltage limiter with a solid state one.  I see RTE has then for $50.  I know some people use the $5 radio shack parts but since those don't come with a manual I'm not sure which one is the better for me.  Can I have my cake and eat it?  Ie is there a cheaper alternative that is easy to install?  I can solder if that helps and I can read a plan...up to a point.

Man I so hope my gauges aren't fried cuz that would mean finding new (used) gauges and getting new decals.  Oil pressure gauge is still acting up, usually going up to 10 or 20 instead of the usual 50.  Alt gauges works fine, fuel gauge is dead, needle is literally off the chart and temp gauge needle is still parked to the far left.

[DC_1]

One by one we're putting those gremlins in a blender! 

Since I will be taking the cluster back out I migh as well go ahead and replace the voltage limiter with a solid state one.  I see RTE has then for $50.  I know some people use the $5 radio shack parts but since those don't come with a manual I'm not sure which one is the better for me.  Can I have my cake and eat it?  Ie is there a cheaper alternative that is easy to install?  I can solder if that helps and I can read a plan...up to a point.

Man I so hope my gauges aren't fried cuz that would mean finding new (used) gauges and getting new decals.  Oil pressure gauge is still acting up, usually going up to 10 or 20 instead of the usual 50.  Alt gauges works fine, fuel gauge is dead, needle is literally off the chart and temp gauge needle is still parked to the far left.

I bought the RTE limiter.........$50 is cheap insurance and I preferred something not hobbled together 

[Dino]

One by one we're putting those gremlins in a blender! 

Since I will be taking the cluster back out I migh as well go ahead and replace the voltage limiter with a solid state one.  I see RTE has then for $50.  I know some people use the $5 radio shack parts but since those don't come with a manual I'm not sure which one is the better for me.  Can I have my cake and eat it?  Ie is there a cheaper alternative that is easy to install?  I can solder if that helps and I can read a plan...up to a point.

Man I so hope my gauges aren't fried cuz that would mean finding new (used) gauges and getting new decals.  Oil pressure gauge is still acting up, usually going up to 10 or 20 instead of the usual 50.  Alt gauges works fine, fuel gauge is dead, needle is literally off the chart and temp gauge needle is still parked to the far left.

I bought the RTE limiter.........$50 is cheap insurance and I preferred something not hobbled together 

Fair enough!  Did you use the IVR4?

[DC_1]

Not sure. I bought it from them at the Mopar Natioanls last year.

Here is a pic