Gas Gauge

[68FORDJBM]

I need to make my gas gage work again - any tips? It was one of the few things working when I bought the truck:) The only thing I've done is unplug the wires to paint and remove the instrument pannel for painting as well. I want to make sure all my gages are working before I put the pannel back in and thought I'd start with th gas gage - one gage at a time:)

I did notice the gage wire comes off the back of the pannel and is wired into this small metal box (the technical term escapes me) off to the side of the pannel. Wsas ondering if the box is something that goes out.

[fordman]

http://www.fordification.com/tech/fuel- ... -units.htm

[Banjo]

Just fought this on my 68. So you have the cluster out of dash and don't have truck running? On mine, it needed both a sending unit for the stock behind seat fuel tank (about $50), as well as a different fuel gauge. Lucky I had a spare cluster, it's pretty straight forward on the 68, you unscrew plain phillips screws if I recall and undo the two small nuts on back of cluster and the fuel gauge will drop right out of front. If you think your sender in tank is good, remove the hot wire to the sending unit in tank while truck is running and ground it out against cab and see if your stock gauge pegs over full and with it undone dead empty. I just used a clean shop tower to lightly dust mine out and windexed the plastic face panel before I put it back together and it's great. But I had a reproduction lense already, if you're stock gauge cluster lens plastic is so yellowed and weathered, it was a good $20 investment. If you feel your sending unit in fuel tank is good you can also plug it up outside the cab with truck running (if your don't risk smoking or a spark) and work the float arm up and down and if the gauge isn't reading accordingly, it's the gauge. I'm surprised because I never had a fuel gauge go bad before and I've had many sending units in the tank to fail.
The little metal box I just changed too because it was reading way low, it's your Instrument Panel Voltage Regulator (IPVR) and it reduces the 12 volts from system down to 5 volts pulsing signal for proper fuel gauge reading. Of course, this is stuff I've read on here as I'm recently trying to learn more about these trucks as I battle through my own problems. Banjo.

[68FORDJBM]

Thank you Fordman and banjo! These exactly the kind of leads I was needing to help troubleshoot my gage. I'm sure i can figure it out from here. I'll try and keep you posted.

I'm finally beginning to put things back together again after gutting the cab:)

[68FORDJBM]

FYI. The gas gauge is working fine now and I didn't have to replace a thing. The tech guide listed above worked great! I had a broken wire from the gage to the IPVR and then the sending unit needed to be taken apart and cleaned. Not sure if it is accurate but it works. I may end up replacing the sending until just to be safe. Thanks all