1976 Charger - Speedometer and Gauge Issues

Just acquired the car, looking to start addressing the issues it has. Biggest one involves the gauge cluster. Here's the rundown of issues:

• No gauge lights in any of the gauge pods or the switches, but have lights in the radio, PRNDL and HVAC control
• No functional gauges - fuel gauge barely creeps off of E, minimal input from oil pressure, nothing else
• Speedometer stuck at 25-30mph at rest, wildly optimistic while driving, no bounce but occasionally emits a light metallic "ping"

I do have idiot lights and a seat belt buzzer, and I have a functioning odometer that is turning appropriately for the vehicle's actual speed. This is my first B-body and it's been a minute since I've dived into a Mopar product. Anybody have any insights? I suspect the speedometer involves the gauge's inner workings, possibly a bearing. Everything else I'm not sure of.

If needed, can get video for further explanation.

Make sure the gauge cluster is grounded. I believe it grounds through the screws holding it to the dash.

A agree with Stumpy for starters and I'm guessing the clock spring in speedometer might be faulty and I'd replace or re-lube the speedometer cable. Also I'd pull the circuit board while in there and check all the sockets for good contact. The pinging I'm guessing is clock-spring. I see NOS Speedometers for those frequently on ebay if that turns out to be bad. IDK how much you'd be willing to spend though. They tend to be pricey.

There's 2 bulk connectors on the dash cluster, 1's kinda in the middle, and one's off to the right ( setting in seat facing cluster ).

It's possible 1) 1 or both have loosened enough to not connect. 2) the voltage reg has fried the gauges or it's not working. They (gauges) come out easily from the front. Take one, get a AA or AAA battery and use it to test your gauge. either post for either (+) or (-). Get some contact cleaner and spray the contacts from the front side (facing you). You can take needle nose pliers and work the connectors around and maybe Q-tip them if you can. I have a couple extra non-tach clusters if you would want or need one.

Red arrows pointing at wiring connectors Bill mentioned. Green arrow pointing at voltage limiter, just because I could.

Note this unit uses a flexible printed circuit board. Sometimes contact between that board and those bulk connectors can be a little iffy.

Awesome information, guys. Will update on my findings once I get the car into the shop and start inspecting parts this weekend.

just picked up off face book?

Super nice car Remy!

Here's a NOS Speedometer if it comes to that. Surprised it's not more $$$ especially this seller

https://www.ebay.com/itm/324477655550?

Yep, that's the one. Saw your pair in the thread. Could I ask a favor - photos of the "Charger Daytona" decals on side and trunk? I just ordered them from Phoenix Graphix and want to get a good idea of layout.

Nice car Remy-Z!

Well that's gotta be new - way back when I had to roll my own. Here's a couple bad pics to get ya started, can take a couple more. Is this one missing the lettering?

$130 for a speedo is freakin nuts. I don't know how many I picked up for $10. That one is also a 75 - in 76 then started labeleing with kilometers / hour on the inside.

It was missing the correct lettering. The ones on the fender/door looked handmade with faded red vinyl, the one on the trunk was cut out of holographic sticker material when I got the car.

I've been a bit slow to get to work on this car while I've been waiting on a VIN typo to get corrected on the title, but now that I've got the paperwork issue resolved, I'm gearing up to really dive in. I pulled the dash fascia off (requires the column to be dropped some? Wow, that's a new one!) but didn't see how the gauge cluster "face" comes off. Is it like a Mirada, with pins? I didn't see any screws/bolts and I still don't have my books in yet. I did manage to cram my paw in behind the dash and was rewarded with functioning gauge lights once I shook the passenger-side connecter in place enough to bust up some corrosion. Would like to get to testing gauges this weekend while I work on some paint corrections.

Yeah but it'll work. Gone are the days of getting a NOS part for that kind of money I'm afraid.

Nice one Remy-Z.

Now, if you need parts, such as speedos and such, PM me

Having to drop the steering column about an inch depends on which steering column. Ya can sneak the bezel past a column shift automatic, the floor shifted one ya gotta drop. The lense bezel is held in with white nylon push pins around the perimeter, they pull out toward you. Ya can get most of them with a small pliers. For the ones along the bottom that ya can't reach, give the bezel a sharp tug towards you. Put em back in with a nut driver.

Often the problem with the dash bulbs is a crappy connection between the bulb itself and the socket. With the gauges pulled out, real easy to get the bulbs out of the socket. I test them across a battery then give the socket contacts a bit of a bend to tighten their grip on the bulb. The leads on the bulb often need a tweak as well. Avoid the temptation to pop them out from the back as designed / intended. Ya'll end up pulling the carrier forward to get them back in.

[/quote]Yeah but it'll work. Gone are the days of getting a NOS part for that kind of money I'm afraid. [/quote]

Who said NOS?

My girl bought a jeep then bought some purple sparkly cut letters to go over the emblems and I gotta say it kinda works. May have to consider and really surprised Phoenix did it but gotta see about more color options especially for the stripes. Silver grey sample is minority. Forgot about this video: walk around of both of mine parked together. One touched up from a hit before I got it, other one not. Ya cant see it in the video but the lettering I had made matches the insert color perfectly.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9md5C5XfCIZqJS6dA1zG6a-qByypZK5H

I have an idea: just getting darker letters is the easy way out. 5 minute fix. I'm gonna have them enlarge the dark ones, maybe reduce the light ones and do 2-tone letters. much cooler 10 minute fix.

Well...that NOS speedometer is expensive. But at least it will work. Removing mine left a pile of tiny springs and a broken needle. Not the best thing ever, I'm afraid.

Now: I have an RTE solid-state relay en route, but can somebody tell me what the two wires could possibly be doing here?

Black runs from right prong and grounds underneath the radio.
Red runs from column to one of the mounting bolts of the radio.

I cannot imagine what purpose the red wire has. Did they believe they were grounding the radio?

As far as NOS speedometer goes that's actually not expensive for NOS speedometer. They've gone through the roof lately. There's another NOS one speedometer on feebay for $250 and a used one for $60 which I'd never buy a used one, then one here for $140 http://www.dpmotorparts.com/list_parts.cfm?page=273 Here for $275 https://www.hiltopautoparts.com/pro...6-chrysler-plymouth-dodge-b-body-models/

No none of them are mine lol

wiring:
ok, the red from column to radio does absolutely nothing. it doesn't connect to the metal of the radio case or the dash frame so it's pointless. the black one going from the dash vr to a ground is an attempt at adding a ground to dash ckt board or vr specifically. Need book to check location, where to test for what it's trying to do. probably pointless attempt to fix gauge. oem radios have a ground lug on the back. some years a stud, some years a nut, many years a rear support bolted to it.

speedo:
in this skin, 75 only, also used in 74 and maybe 73. I have a couple working ones stashed, I'll hook ya up., remind me.

hey, balance knob missing entirely? I mean knob not unusual but entire lever gone??

this one works, have the floor button.

Balance slider is completely MIA. I'll hold off on the radio replacement for the moment, the gauges are a much more pressing issue and I need to do speakers as well, later on. If a 1974 will work, will a 1971 work? For that matter, wonder how well an entire 1971 gauge pack would transfer over...hmm...

Hopefully my books show up sometime this week.

earlier gauges won't fit. the jumper from column to radio could be doing something - some years the radio mounting tab is part of the chassis, most years it part of the plastic face plate. it's still a hack fix for the whatever the actual issue is.

'71-'74 B-body gauges will not fit?





Exactly. Maybe it's just glare in the photo, but the photo with the red wire looks like the tab is cast as part of the front of the radio chassis. I still would recommend this method, but it's not total insanity.

Work was performed this weekend. Old voltage regulator is out, a new RTE IVR3 limiter went in. NOS speedometer went in, cable lubricated. The results: the speedometer works like a charm. The fuel gauge now reads slightly over 1/8th tank when fully topped off and drops fast. Everything else can't be bothered. And that's with the two odd wires both hooked up and not. All that seems to happen is if I unhook the red wire from the column, my seat belt buzzer quits working. I do wonder if the sending unit in the tank is moving properly, but as far as everything else?

'71-'74 B-body gauges will not fit?

Hmmm... I remembered this thread and pretty sure they fit in the later clusters. From what I remember the earlier speedometer is smaller if I remember correctly. https://www.forbbodiesonly.com/moparforum/threads/71-74-b-gauges-in-a-magnum-cordoba.45211/

74s should, 73s might, going back earlier ya run in to size / mount / font issues.

Ok, so jumper from column to radio is for seat belt buzzer. That's freaking odd. Seatbelt interlock noise is mounted between ash tray and glove box, should be grounded as needed to metal frame. I still say loose them and chase the real issues.

Gauges run off variable resistors - fuel sender is 0-90 ohms, dunno exact resistance of temp and oil. In all cases, ground the gauge lead at the sender and the gauge should read max. From there it's chase the wires, connectors, senders and grounds. Only time I see temp and oil refuse to move is unplugged at the sender. Gas sender generally has a horrible ground making it read low.

More work has been done. Popped the sensor wire off of the temperature sensor, ran a ground to the battery, and hit it with a AA battery with the wife in the car watching. Nothing, not so much as a twitch. I believe the gauges are cooked. This leaves me with the new speedometer and the fuel gauge that reads 1/8th when the tank is topped off.

This also leaves me at a bit of a conundrum. I want to keep the OEM feel of the car, but I really want a Rallye cluster in the car. At some point, I am going to pull the whole dashboard out so I can send it off to Just Dashes to get the crack in the dash cover repaired. I would be somewhat alright with just a functioning speedometer and fuel gauge for the time being, but I wouldn't be completely comfortable on longer trips like I want to do. (read: RMRW, Power Tour, etc.)

For now, I'll watch eBay and start poking around. Any other ideas that I could try out, let me know. Once this tank of fuel runs low I'll drop the tank and have a look-see at the sending unit. I appreciate all of the help!

Hooked a AA battery between the temp sender lead and bat ground?? Ummm, no. Jumper the temp sender lead to ground and turn on ignition, check for needle movement. When the voltage limiter for the gauges goes poof it can fry the gauges but like I said, don't often see that. A simple ohm meter across the gauge leads should tell you.

This bit is easier if you have the wiring diagram but ya can do it blind if ya really have to. Pull all the gauges out of the carrier, figure out which clip on each one is ground. Run an ohm meter between the other clip and the sender lead. There's a connector at the gauge cluster that can cause issues but usually doesn't. Same with the bulkhead disco. In the case of early 76 build there's another disconnect on the passenger side wheel house.

The Rallye dash is kinda nice to have from a rarity standpoint - if you can find a tach with the needle still attached. Used to be a pretty cheap score at swap meets and bolts right in. I find the gas gauge hard to read in part because it has about 1/3 the sweep of the regular gauge. I might still have most of one stashed away and more than likely have a lower bezel. Lemme know if ya want me to dig.

*squints*

...is that a 140 MPH speedometer?!

yup - fury / coronet cop car certified speedo. real tough find.

I started wondering what I had left and have been wanting to catalog the bits so 2 birds, 1 stone.

1st one: 75 only, complete standard dash, working when pulled. No kmh scale.

2nd one: 76, 77, complete standard dash, dual scale speedo US, blue trim on cluster mask, bezel is 78/79.

3rd one: 78/79, complete tach dash, 76/77 speedo random bezels

a couple of 75-77 tachs

As long as I'm at it......

75-77 tach vs standard: different gauges, different circuit board, different carrier, same wiring harness, direct plug in swap.

78-79 tach vs standard: different gauges, different circuit board, same carrier, wire harness might be 75-77 plug compatible.


This is the early vs late tach dash circuit board. Early ones had a stand alone harness for the tach, late ones had it built in. Also switched the tach mount to the same push pin arrangement as the other gauges.

Oh yeah super tough to find!

I did actually score one in a boneyard once. The one pictured here was an NOS find complete with red 1/10 digit. Would ya believe $77 shipped from Island Dodge in Hawaii?

More testing done, since the car is currently sitting with no fuel tank underneath it right now. Pulled each gauge and tested individually except for fuel gauge. Happily, with the tank and sender removed, the LED warning light for low fuel has come to life. All gauges show life bench-tested, which rules out a load spike death. I cleaned the gauge contacts before reinstalling them.

This leaves me with two options: the cluster connectors themselves, or the bulkhead connector. I've pulled both cluster connectors, cleaned the terminals, and have made sure the contacts are good. How likely is it that the bulkhead connector has an issue?

The bulk head connectors are always a possible problem area. A lot of it depends on where the car spent most of its days, damp cold storage often causes issues with the bulk head connector.

I bought a 75 Daytona Charger that spent a good share of its life in a wet garage. I had a hit or miss electrical issue. After chasing it for several months, I discovered that somewhere along the way, the bulk head connector was separated and cleaned, but when it was reassembled, they didn't get all the spades pushed completely in. The car would run great until it would die on the road. About the time you started checking things out, it would fire up, and could run for a month or more before it died on the road again. One day, out of frustration, I took a screw driver and pushed in all the wires in on the bulk head connector, about 1/2 of them pushed in at least an 1/8" . Never had a problem with it after that.
Check the bulk head connector! Gene

Dodge trucks from this era are notorious for bulk head problems, the B bodies not so much. Like I said a few posts back, whip out the ohm meter and the wiring diagram.

Fun with connectors: the female side is held in the hood by a small tab that's part of the spade head. Connector hood has a small opening where ya can shove a small flat head in and release the connector from the hood. Bend the tab back up before reinserting or ya get what Gene had. The male side can be released by squeezing it together to release the 1/2 of the spade that acts as a retaining clip. Generally pop right back in. OEM style connectors can be a hunt but that's were a spare / scrap harness comes in handy.

Thank you, RWG75, that will be a help since my books only showed as shipped yesterday. Will start testing connections this weekend.

Did wonder...what is the silver relay (?) at the bottom (in photo, right) of the bulkhead? Feels like it's trying to come apart when it's touched.

Off the top of my head I'm thinking headlight circuit breaker. The other (empty) mounting location would be power window.

Possibly a key light or buzzer relay. Headlight circuit breaker is built into the headlight switch.

key / seat belt buzzer is behind the ash tray. the good book says horn relay.

Pulled the bulkhead connector that covers the gauges. Everything feels fantastic, not loose, all wires are pushed in solidly, nothing is wiggling, no corrosion. I see no damage (those dark marks on the female end cleaned off, not scorched). Put everything back together after a quick clean-up with contact cleaner. Nothing.

Still stumped.

As I understand, the gauge cluster grounds to the housing itself. I know I'm getting power to the gauges for sure...when I hooked the battery up and keyed the power on, I saw the oil pressure gauge tick up slightly and stay there, and with the fuel tank and sender out the LED is still flashing away for low fuel. Is this looking like a case of adding in a ground at this point?

I spent ten years wiring helicopters, and Chrysler gauge clusters just kick my .

Would there be a chance the gauges are maybe fried? I can lend you some to test. Who knows.

It's usually easier when ya have the schematic or 1/2 of it memorized.

The ground for the dash is in the 6 pin connector more or less behind the speedo. Solid black wire in the middle. Other end is a ring lug to the dash frame more or less behind the ash tray (CI 34). Ground side of gauges, dash lamps and voltage limiter are tied together in the circuit board. So if the lights light, ya got a ground. An easy sanity check is one lead of the ohm meter to a handy body ground like the A pillar trim screw or visor mounting screw and bounce around the front of the cluster with the other lead.

Not surprised the bulkhead connector was clean - sealed up pretty well from the factory and well hidden from rain water. The connectors at the sender for temp, oil, fuel are more likely culprits. Push on plug for temp sender is often rusty, spade connector for oil is often loose / corroded / hanging on by a thread, ground strap at tank is always rusty and will often just crumble in your hand. At this point, it's divide and conquer - check continuity from bulk head connector to senders and from bulkhead to circuit board.

Just remembered this one: one of mine had a problem where every now and then the dash lights didn't light. Usually in cold weather and eventually came on. When it turned in to a hard fail, reseating that 6 pin connector (CI 5) fixed it - the orange wire across from the ground is the dash lamp hot. If the stray jumpers from way back was an attempt to fix a flaky ground, I bet it's right there.

There ya go and DynoDave called it a few posts earlier. Yanking the entire carrier to get to the back side isn't too ugly.

Sounds like a plan. Will keep y'all updated on the progress. Thanks for the help and the insight!

Ya know, that's just plain wrong. Ignition on, motor off, oil gauge shouldn't move at all. Fuel sender unplugged, low fuel light should be constant on - I've never seen one that intentionally blinks. If's supposed to come on at 1/8 tank which is about 11 ohms at the sender. It will wink on and off when the fuel sloshes around but the gauge is dampened so it doesn't just bounce around constantly. I think I'd be close to yanking the cluster and putting the circuit board on the bench.

This is a pretty comprehensive gauge diag vid for 75-80 dodge trucks and mostly shouldn't be anything new. B body gauges work the same way, just different hardware. One thing I didn't pickup on when I stashed this away - he started with an oil sender for an idiot light then switched to an oil sender for a gauge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X8Tiess12k

Now that brings up something! The wire that is shown in the video that goes from the voltage regulator to the condenser...that I haven't seen yet. In my situation, the random black wire that is routed down to the radio bolt was hooked up to that regulator. I'm not calling it a smoking gun, but if that's the way it's supposed to be connected, suddenly I've got a fairly good hunch as to what is not right.

Found some things I'm not liking. First thing's first, a video of what the gauges are doing under power:



And a close-up of the six-pin connector location. The two blue arrows point to elements on the circuit panel that were pulled up from the panel, but those don't bother me as much as the red arrow, where the plastic has melted, moving the circuit panel's connector away from the plug. Additionally, the brown wire (when viewing from the seat, right side center) had a completely flat contact, no bow to it at all. That was fixed before the video was shot, as was the layout of the loose elements.

I'm still working out where the ground wire for the voltage regulator is supposed to be, but with heat and humidity both in the upper 90s here, I'm only working in my shop a few minutes at a time.

Today's work. First up is the rogue black wire that ran from the voltage regulator to the cluster frame underneath the radio. Three strands of copper were trying to do the job.There are three major routes to the voltage regulator: the two connectors within the circuit board and (G1 20DGN), which runs to the radio's (20 R) power wire. The radio's power connector is hooked up, so that leaves me with the question: on top of the voltage reguator, as I'm looking at it mounted in the dash, is that a simple ground? If so, it's too easy to make a new ground wire and run it to a better location. Otherwise, what goes there?

Second up was removing the front seat, because at 6'3 and pushing the far end of the 200-pound range, contortion is not in my repertoire. Removing the seat, I found that the seat belt buzzer link for the seatbelt itself was not connected. Some under-carpet fishing found the connector and I hooked it back up. The buzzer worked regardless, but I have to wonder if there is a grounding effect here. Either way, I hate purposefully disconnected electronics, so that's done.

Next, I popped out the (C1 4) 12-pin connector and immediately noticed the red/white wire's flat and shallow contact bar. This is the ammeter power wire, which connects straight to the bulkhead (CE 1) port just like the ground wire.

Plan of attack: Make a new ground wire for the voltage regulator and route it to a more trustworthy ground point than the cluster cage, reassemble the functional gauges and test functionality. Will return with findings.

Ok, now we're fixing this thing and popping the cluster might be on the horizon. Easier than layin in the car at any age but I hear ya.

The cap across the vr isn't a ground route it's a filter for the vr clicking. Ground to cluster is still through that smoked connector, fix that and bobs yer uncle. Unplug the new fangled seat buzzer was a typical day 2 thing. Ya can melt a little plastic back in there but at least try heating it up and nudging it back. If committed to to adding a dedicated ground, flip ckt board over and solder a wire to that trace.

Dash pad is 5-6 screws (2 ends, 3 bottom) and 3 screws at defrost grille. Carrier is 3 screws across top and two at the bottom. Pull forward, 2 white clips hold harness to carrier.

Will return with fully functional gauges. vid edit: ya said watch temp, ya meant oil.

Was afraid of that. Those defroster plate screws were put in by the Marquis de Sade himself. Ok, will be the next item up on the agenda after I cool off and rehydrate.

Offset Phillips or 1/4 ratchet and tip. Small flat head under grille. Sucks less.

Well...that was "fun". But it's out. No broken connectors, no separated vacuum lines. That's a win.

Detail shots. Will start ringing this out and see if I can locate the issue.

Outstanding and sometimes ya just gotta go the whole 9 yards. I've always said and believed that whatever you're doing on a Chrysler will be pretty straight forward except for that one #@$%! bolt. In this case, speaker grille screws.

Pencil erasers are great contact cleaners, so are US currency. bulb to socket connection is more of a problem than bulb life. gauge to ckt bd connecters slip out with a light squeeze. great time to splice in connectors for the later radios - up to early 2000s bolts right in, sounds much better.

RWG you're so right on contacts in the bulb sockets versus bulb life! I use finger nail emory boards for alot of them. Sometimes I break them into smaller pieces to get into spots but for the bottoms erasers are better

in the first and second pictures, it looks like a couple of the ribbons are coming loose from the board, and need glued down.
would super glue/gorilla glue work for this application ?

Happens with bulb sockets too. A couple drops of super glue, tweezer with a rubber band as a clamp. Holds well enough to get connector in. Connector will hold it. Tinning the trace can tighten it up too.

Last night's work: ringing out the cluster. Best job so far, since I could do it in the house, where the air conditioning is. When the only downside is that the cats find your electrical book quite comfortable, it's not a bad thing to do.

In short, the cluster rings out properly, no breaks. Every connector point that's active, all three points on the voltage limiter, all good. Good news, since this means the cluster is fine and I can finish it up and prepare to re-install it.

Bad news, because it means it's time to start ringing out the car, from bulkhead to connectors.

Now I'm starting to find interesting items...

Started to ring out between the bulkhead connector and the two main plugs for the gauge cluster. Here's the findings so far:

* Position 29 on bulkhead (oil pressure) - Violet on 12-pin
* Position 32 on bulkhead (engine temp) - Gray on 12-pin
* Position 22 on bulkhead (ammeter) - Red/White and Black/White on 12-pin


This still doesn't explain everything, not by a wide mile, but it's a start.

Next, I move to the seat belt buzzer (CI 7). As you can kind of see in the picture, light green wire has been double-spliced and the peach-colored single wire from that connection is running straight down to a mount just behind the ashtray. Somebody has been in here before.

Now, for the real mystery: where is the panel ground (CI 34)? Book says "left mid reinforcement". Can somebody put that into layman's terms for me, please?!

Not sure what you're findings are saying beyond which wire is which gauge?

Kinda think the picture of CI-7 is actually CI-30, seat belt buzzer. The repaired splice should be headed toward the headlight switch or ign switch.

Left mid reinforcement should be the green arrow. CI-37, heater blower switch is described as just below left mid. I knida remember a large-ish spade lug going over the steering column stud on at least one of mine. Check for a stray wire in the vicinity, maybe the blue arrow. The red arrow is the rear bracket for the radio which is also it's ground.

Mainly for historical reference and to make sure that I don't re-cover what I've already looked at. Ruled out the cluster, figured the temp and oil pressure signals might be crossed up, according to the book (violet is supposed to be temp, gray to oil pressure). The splice at the buzzer goes in two directions: the light green wire disappears to the right in the dash, and the peach-colored wire out of the splice gets screwed in with a ring connector into the tab roughly just behind the ash tray.

Was way off with "mid". Will start hunting there. Thank you again for your assistance, you're a major help with this project!

Spent this evening crawling all over this dash. If there is supposed to be a ground at the the mid-structure, I'm not seeing it. At all. The only wiring going through there is either for the column or the brake light switch, and none of it is hard-mounted to the mount in question. Short of pulling the kick panels, I'm out of ideas. I'll do that in a couple of days when I get time to work on the Charger again.

EDIT - You said that cluster grounds at black wire at the 6-pin connector (CI 5, H4 20BK). Tracing that ground from the panel ground, it takes me to the cluster illumination lamps, the ash tray lamp, the heater panel lamp, the clock, the seat belt lamp in the dash, and the map light...all of which function, as do both turn signal bulbs and the hi-beam indicator. Looking at the three inop gauges, I see the shared ground via the voltage limiter...which means that if the rest of the cluster is working and grounded, what's the issue here? This leaves me two more points to look at:

* CI 4, 20DGN - This is the power wire to the radio.
*The output point at the voltage limiter to the three powered gauges.

Since the radio functions just fine, this leaves me no other option than the power point at the voltage limiter on the instrument cluster, right? Could the ...what is that, a condensor?...be the issue, or would I be looking at a break in the panel? I'll plug everything in next time and see what kind of voltage I get across the gauge points, but I think I have my target zone now.

Some PO in there would explain the both the wires being flipped in the hood and the pin not fully seated in the hood. I'd loop back to the connector chart to verify wire color vs hood position and ring it out to CE 1 as needed for a sanity check. The ring behind the ash tray should be CI 9.

I'll assume you were also looking for it just hanging in the breeze. At this point ya may just have to run the length of harness and look for a single black wire coming out of it.


Not sure if you're chasing that in the book or in the car so: ohm meter from connector hood in the harness to any convenient ground point will tell you if CI 34 is attached somewhere. I'd feel better laying hands on it.



CI 4 20 DGN is power to the cluster coming from fuse #8 (zone 83D) which also powers the wipers, cruise control, rear defrost. The radio is on a different fuse and doesn't connect to the cluster but here's an idea: Cluster on the bench, use a couple small jumpers to hook 12 vdc and ground to the ckt board at the connector points, look for 5v pulse on the output side. The condenser is to filter out the limiter clicks. Wasn't step 1 in all this replacing the limiter?

Reassembled cluster. Found the ground wire from the main wiring bundle, looks perfect, no corrosion between ground wire and mount. Took the time to convert the dash lights to LEDs. Plugged everything up. Power on, key on, I have gauge lights but the brake light is pulsing, much like the low fuel LED. Broke out the multimeter to see if I have 5v coming from the voltage limiter.

I saw almost an average of about 5.5v in the pulses, but in moving around to check things the voltage limiter suddenly crapped out. The LED on the limiter kicked the bucket, the low fuel light shut off, the brake warning light shut off, and the alt gauge started leaning heavy to "C". The gauge lights still function and the car will still crank over and start.

I still have the stock voltage limiter on-hand. I can plug it back in for a quick test, and I'll order another RTE unit ASAP. Not sure what I jostled to make things unhappy...was just poking around using multimeter leads at the back of the voltage limiter.

And the next person to tell me that removing and installing the cluster is "easy"...

If it was easy, it wouldn't be a Chrysler. try to think of it has 1/2 fixed instead of still totally broken?

If the limiter is recent new, not surprised it's crap. Where did that ground turn up? As this car has obviously had dash ground issues, I'd keeping doing random ohm meter checks on the cluster ground looking for a flaky connection some where.

Ground was on body-colored metal, right about where the (aluminum?) under-dash cross bar slides into, close to the fender.

Latest update: attached fuel sender and had a fuel gauge for about five minutes. Started to notice the temperature gauge going for the moon, cut power. Exchanged out the RTE limiter for the original one, managed to yank out the negative wire for the fuel gauge in the process from the dash. Reattached that connector to it's pin, now I have no fuel gauge, no seat belt buzzer, a temperature gauge hell-bent on hara-kiri, and for that dash of salt in the wound, a dead battery.

*sigh* Guess this cluster is coming back out...

(after calming down) Ok, something is wrong with a gauge. The RTE limiter has a diagnostic LED. If it flashes when power is on, everything is happy. If it cuts out, like it did last night, that's a protection measure. Today, that LED is solid on, indicating a short to ground. Just off of the cuff, I'm going to ring out the full temperature gauge length, from sensor to gauge. I still want to pull the cluster and properly sort out the fuel gauge's negative wire issue. The fuel gauge coming to life gives me hope.

(after a good night's sleep) Noticed that a 12v battery wouldn't start the car and would discharge fast, even with a jump box attached. Pulled temperature gauge, no effect. Found that fuse #6 (5 amp) is blown.

that almost sounds like a ground for something else. power window harness maybe? left mid reinforcement?

speaking of power windows, never test them beyond basic smoke testing with the engine off. gauges shouldn't kill the battery but oh well, charge that too. So here's a electrical challenge: if repeated limiters are suspect, wire in a pile resister in place? the object is reduce 12vdc to 5. period. a bench top 5vdc would be to easy. Any sender lead grounded will make a gauge read max, over max at 12v. intentional grounding is easy way to test body wiring. maybe even a rheostat to check accuracy.

the old one and the original ones sound like new ones which make them both suspect. the real deal ones were dumb cans covering a dividing resistor or a relay and a resistor. no switching transistor or solid state devices. lasted for ever. fuse 6 is only the radio so maybe a stray hot down there? thinking 2 cavity L shaped connector.

I'm too brain-fried to process that right now. Tore it all back out. Have battery charger trickle-charging for tomorrow's testing. But I did find three orphan connectors:

1. orange/black - looks like CI 44, Accessory Title Lamp, down near emergency brake.
2. heavy gauge blue/white single connector. I haven't found that in the book yet. Close to bulkhead connector.
3. yellow/yellow/pink. Looks like CI 29, Time Delay Relay.

Okay, so I found connectors that aren't serving a purpose. Unless blue/white heavy gauge has a point, this is just a note. But..

Here's the ground I originally found, left side of cluster, above the HVAC controls. Black and gray, banking on CI 34, main harness ground. This is a crank-window Charger, no power features. Then, I found this stud behind and just above the ashtray, with nothing attached to it. Seems kind of strange, since this is functionally the middle of the dash.

The alt gauge appears to now be damaged, it reads between centered and "C" and moves for nothing. Temperature gauge still goes properly maxed out once key-on is applied. Fuel gauge is safe and functional.

And is it just me, or does it look like someone has already been in this wiring? I've never seen that kind of electrical tape in a stock Chrysler product from 1976. That seems...newer.

Tomorrow I will attempt to start the car with no gauge cluster in place in the hopes that I can charge the car where it sits, instead of having to unload my entire garage, shove the car out, and tow it to where my wife's Silverado can get to it.

Stray unused connectors aren't always a problem. Sometimes they're for options not installed. Power window and power locks are both stand alone add on harnesses that plug in to the main body harness. Aux title lamp in kick panel might be for the Cordoba B pillar opera lamps or the rear defrost switch goes right there. Pink and yellow is generally locks. shiny electrical tape probably existed in the 70s but they used cloth tape at the factory and no doubt somebody has been in here. Might be time well spent peeling some of it back. Not gonna get any where until vr fixed.

That small two wire connector in the first picture looks like a CB power connector to me.

i have seen shiny tape in unmolested 74-78 chryslers i have junked, so i'm guessing by your pics and the way the tape is applied, it looks factory compared to the stuff i have junked over the years.
in my experience, the pink and yellow together, usually go to dome and courtesy light[s] circuits.

"accessory title lamp" means rear defrost switch light. switch and wire to glass comes with glass.

blue w/ white trace is CI-33, zone 97C, power feed to options not installed: windows, rear defrost, tailgate. body harness comes with option.

hard to tell where they're hanging from the zoom level.

I have the cluster back together for the time being, as the Charger needs to be back on the road for the next month or so. Measuring at the gauge input points sees power pulses at or under 5 volts, so for now, I'm focusing on getting this thing moving again. MoParty is too close to keep the car down, and I want to drive it for a bit before the winter hits. Once I get the fuel system mods finished up and have the car running again, I'll update with results. Thank you all for your help!