Can you Change Out Just the Feul Level Gauge?
03-01-2017, 06:39 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Atlanta, GA
Posts: 19
Can you Change Out Just the Feul Level Gauge?
OK... so that's the question:
Can you open up the instrument cluster and change out the fuel level gauge with a good one from a donor instrument panel of the same year?
Is that possible, or is the fuel level gauge hard soldered onto the instrument cluster printed circuit board and not removeable?
If it's possible, I'm going to buy a spare instrument panel off of eBay and give it a try.
Anybody done it?
Can you open up the instrument cluster and change out the fuel level gauge with a good one from a donor instrument panel of the same year?
Is that possible, or is the fuel level gauge hard soldered onto the instrument cluster printed circuit board and not removeable?
If it's possible, I'm going to buy a spare instrument panel off of eBay and give it a try.
Anybody done it?
03-06-2017, 11:17 AM
#2
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Atlanta, GA
Posts: 19
Answering my Own Question
OK... so it looks like the answer is NO, you can't just change out a bad fuel gauge in the instrument cluster.
I had a "spun" fuel gauge needle that was bumping up against the wrong side of the stop. Tried to get it to spin back around to the left side with magnets from the outside, but it wouldn't quite pull back around far enough to stay there.
So, yesterday I removed the instrument cluster from the dash and disassembled it. I spun the fuel gauge needle back around where it belonged and it stayed there! Yay!
I looked at the disassembled gauge set to see if perhaps an individual gauge (like the fuel gauge) could be removed from it and replaced with a good one.
It doesn't seem practical since the individual gauges are hard mounted on the main printed circuit board (PCB) that contains the whole works. So, unless you want to try to un-solder an individual gauge and solder on a new one, there's no way to do it.
By the time you buy a used meter panel to get the new gauge, you might as well just use the whole replacement meter panel. Plus, if you're not experienced at soldering on PCBs, you just may fry something else in the process.
***
I had a "spun" fuel gauge needle that was bumping up against the wrong side of the stop. Tried to get it to spin back around to the left side with magnets from the outside, but it wouldn't quite pull back around far enough to stay there.
So, yesterday I removed the instrument cluster from the dash and disassembled it. I spun the fuel gauge needle back around where it belonged and it stayed there! Yay!
I looked at the disassembled gauge set to see if perhaps an individual gauge (like the fuel gauge) could be removed from it and replaced with a good one.
It doesn't seem practical since the individual gauges are hard mounted on the main printed circuit board (PCB) that contains the whole works. So, unless you want to try to un-solder an individual gauge and solder on a new one, there's no way to do it.
By the time you buy a used meter panel to get the new gauge, you might as well just use the whole replacement meter panel. Plus, if you're not experienced at soldering on PCBs, you just may fry something else in the process.
***
