Deutz Lover
Member
I have been working to replace broken parts on my new to me 1973 Ford 4000 and got an aftermarket instrument cluster to replace the old one which was shattered and nothing worked.
I was studying the diagrams and most of it is simple, but the voltage stabilizer (which Ford used for years) perplexed me. I removed the old one and dismantled it finding the burned out remnants of the wire wound element which is supposed to vibrate? forming a kind of voltage reducer.
I looked at the voltage stabilizer in the new cluster and it appeared crudely made compared the original. I measured the resistance across the two inputs and read zero ohms resistance. So I removed the stabilizer and opened it. There was nothing inside except a piece of wire bridging the two inputs. At first I thought that some parts suppliers scammed the manufacturer, but after removing the instrument cover and examining the temp and fuel gauges the answer became clear.
In the original instrument cluster the two gauges functioned as current meters using wire wrapped metal to heat the movement using thermal expansion to move the needle.
The new instrument cluster uses volt operated d'arsonval type movement operating a magnetic field to control the meter deflection. I had previously worried that I might mess up the instillation because of the stabilizer, but this type of setup I understand.
There is no need for the stabilizer so a dummy stabilizer was substituted to keep the layout the same. Now I can breath a sigh of relief.
I was studying the diagrams and most of it is simple, but the voltage stabilizer (which Ford used for years) perplexed me. I removed the old one and dismantled it finding the burned out remnants of the wire wound element which is supposed to vibrate? forming a kind of voltage reducer.
I looked at the voltage stabilizer in the new cluster and it appeared crudely made compared the original. I measured the resistance across the two inputs and read zero ohms resistance. So I removed the stabilizer and opened it. There was nothing inside except a piece of wire bridging the two inputs. At first I thought that some parts suppliers scammed the manufacturer, but after removing the instrument cover and examining the temp and fuel gauges the answer became clear.
In the original instrument cluster the two gauges functioned as current meters using wire wrapped metal to heat the movement using thermal expansion to move the needle.
The new instrument cluster uses volt operated d'arsonval type movement operating a magnetic field to control the meter deflection. I had previously worried that I might mess up the instillation because of the stabilizer, but this type of setup I understand.
There is no need for the stabilizer so a dummy stabilizer was substituted to keep the layout the same. Now I can breath a sigh of relief.