gauges

[cwilson jr]

I have an 85 Silverado with the clock cluster.  Somewhat recently 3/4 of the small side guages quit working, I believe simultaneously.  This includes the voltmeter, oil pressure and temperature.  I wanted to know if anyone has had this happen before and where is a good place to start.  Could this be a single ground issue or possibly something in the cluster itself?

[rp3]

Had the same problem on 82 gmc. It was the circuit board on back of cluster pull it and look a
It over.

[DuckAholic1]

I have an 85 Silverado with the clock cluster.  Somewhat recently 3/4 of the small side guages quit working, I believe simultaneously.  This includes the voltmeter, oil pressure and temperature.  I wanted to know if anyone has had this happen before and where is a good place to start.  Could this be a single ground issue or possibly something in the cluster itself?

I'm Having the same issue w/ my 87. I have checked & cleaned all grounds,& replaced sensors. Planning on buying a new curcit board for $69 plus shipping. Sure hopping it takes care of the prob!!!!

[bd]

I have an 85 Silverado with the clock cluster.  Somewhat recently 3/4 of the small side guages quit working, I believe simultaneously.  This includes the voltmeter, oil pressure and temperature.  I wanted to know if anyone has had this happen before and where is a good place to start.  Could this be a single ground issue or possibly something in the cluster itself?

I'm Having the same issue w/ my 87. I have checked & cleaned all grounds,& replaced sensors. Planning on buying a new curcit board for $69 plus shipping. Sure hopping it takes care of the prob!!!!

cwilson:  Check the fuses and make sure the harness plug is fully seated into the back of the cluster.  Then disassemble and thoroughly clean the wire connections to the ground bus, as well as between the bus and the cab sheetmetal.  The ground bus is located under the driver side dash next to the e-brake pedal assembly.  At least one of the ground bus wires serves the cluster.  You may need to use a little 120 grit emery to ensure a good ground connection to shiny sheetmetal.  Reassemble the bus with anti-oxidant.

To both:  The copper foil on the PC board that attaches to the back of the cluster will tarnish over time.  Tarnish and accumulated dust can degrade electrical connections.  Tarnish can interfere with circuit function at any point there is a poor physical connection between individual components and the PC board (e.g., at the harness plug, at the gauge clips, at the dash lamp sockets, etc). 

Remove the gauges and the silver spring clips that connect the gauges to the board.  Use crocus cloth or a rubber eraser to gently but brightly burnish the copper foil at every point there's an electrical connection.  Be careful that you don't peel the copper foil loose from the board.  While you have the gauge clips out, use needle nose pliers to slightly increase the tension the clips apply to the gauge pins and the PC board.  Apply a light smear of anti-oxidant between the copper foil and the gauge clips before reinserting the clips through the back of the cluster.  This will decrease the chance of recurrence. 

If you still have the gauge issue after cleaning the PC board, check for 12-volt ignition on the three pink/black wires and ground to the three black wires that run into the cluster connector.

[DuckAholic1]

Thanks so much bd! I will be trying this before I order a new one.

[cwilson jr]

Thank-you.  I will be looking into this as well.

I can't believe this, but could someone point me to a fuse box diagram?  I want this for other reasons as well.  I've done multiple searches, including search engines and by images and I cannot seem to locate a simple diagram of the box with a numbered list of correlating fuses.  I am not looking for the schematics as such, located in the technical pages.

[bd]

The fuse box diagrams you seek are on page 11, lefthand side, of the 1985 Wiring Manual in our Technical Pages.  The two diagrams illustrate the front and back sides of the fuse box.  Pages 9 and 10 show the full detail of wiring, as well.

[DuckAholic1]

Hey bd!! The ansewer you just gave cwilson jr make me want to say this...man I really dig this site!! A plethora of info to be had!!!:)

[cwilson jr]

Alright, I just replaced a bad 20 amp fuse labeled gage and my volt meter started functioning.  Before, I tear into things, are the other two gauges, oil and temp. related to the voltmeter in anyway?  Could they just not happen to be working now at the same time because of a separate issue, such as a ground or sensors?  The oil reads 0 and temp. reads all the way to the right hand side, past the highest read.

I will say this as well, before the volt, oil and temp. quit functioning, there was a previous issue with the oil.  It seemed as it would always work intermittently, but in its current state it is completely non-functioning.

[bd]

The oil and temp gauges share ignition power and ground, both independent of the voltmeter.  Unplug the oil pressure and
temperature gauge senders.  With the ignition switched ON the oil gauge should rise past maximum and the temp gauge should drop below cold.  Do they?