Gauges dont work?

[hondarider188]

I have a 1983 Chevy k10 with the 5.7 liter engine. I just bought it and the only gauges that work are the speedometer and fuel gauges. the oil pressure kind of works it says about 20 pounds, but i don't think that is correct. the engine temp. is topped out the previous owner installed a sunpro gauge under the dash and it work but original temp does not. Last the voltage gauge doesn't read anything. Does anyone have any thoughts on what might be my issues?

[blazing816]

To me it sounds like someone did an engine swap in it and when they did they did not pull the original (electric/manual) sending units/sensor from the engine. They took the easy road and bought a $30 part to mount under the dash that comes with all new manual senders. If you want the stock gauges to work, you would need to buy a stock sending unit/sensor and then find the stock wire that went to it from wiring diagram (im asuming yours is electric from age and that is also asuming someone did not just cut the wires).

That is exactly what someone did with my beater truck...I tried changing gauges, gauge pods, and it was too much of a pain in the $$$. So I had a set of those gauges under they dash until I put my new motor in then I moved them. You can see the thread below to see how I did it to give it somewhat of a factory look.

http://forum.73-87chevytrucks.com/smforum/index.php/topic,24709.0.html

[hondarider188]

thanks for the help. that does make alot of sense because i cant seem to be able to figure out what wires run where or what they go to. I have loose ends and extra wire running everywhere. I have found out what about half of them do but for the rest which includes the gauges i cant seem to trace them back to find out what is what. I do like what you did with your dash, is that a tach in the top right, it so where would the sensor wire hook up the ignition system thanks.

[hondarider188]

I forgot to add that the oil pressure gauge has been slowly dropping. it now appears be only at about 5-10 pounds. the engine has not had any problems at all to make me even begin to think that it actually has low pressure. So i do believe that it is the sending unit but i hate to just start throwing parts at it, does anyone know how to test or what else might be the problem?