Hello all Happy Thanks giving to all and to everyone else just Have A Nice Day!

I started my 72 Duster /6 auto mostly stock and noticed no gas,oil ,brake lites on gages. checkes under dash fuses. they're ok, but no power to instrument fuse. Every thing starts, runs works the way it should but no gages. Even pulled engine side of wiring plugs and cleaned & elec greased the connectors to no luck. ammeter still works ok any ideals from the gurus or the electric smart??? thanks Neil

bulbs are new 1 yr ago thanks

Have you checked thebulbs? I have seen many cars that had no functioning dash lights due entirely to burnt out bulbs.

Could be VR on back of cluster. Maybe not for all of it, but the malfunctioning gauges have been corrected many times by replacing with a new quality Voltage Regulator.

~THOR~

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1984 D100 Shorty Custom
Certified Auto Appraiser - RevItUp Classic Appraisals
President - Cherry City Bombers CC
Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

that particular fuse is fed by a fusible link through the bulkhead disconnect. the input side of that fuse is jumpered to one or two other circuits, including the headlamp switch. are you using a multimeter to verify voltage on both sides of the fuse?
and do all the gauges work as they should, or is it just the backlighting that is affected? in any case, the instrument voltage regulator does not have anything to do with the gauge lighting, and will not even be on if the fuse feeding it is dead.

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I've been calling it as i see it for my entire life and that's not about to change. Take it or leave it.

Welcome on the board. First thing to do is to get a factory service manual for your car as soon as you can. Until it arrives, you can download a fairly good wiring diagram free of charge here. This will help you trace back along that feed wire to find where the fault is.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

awesome site, Thank you dan! that site is now bookmarked.

OP, you will need to determine which pin on the circuit board connector feeds your headlights and trace backwards from that. all you have to do is follow the power tracks on the board from any illumination lamp and trace it to the plug. be aware if your alternator is charging at a higher than normal system voltage the life of your bulbs will be shortened, so check the voltage with your multimeter while the engine is running and report back to us. does the brightness of your headlamps pulse or surge when you rev the throttle?

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I've been calling it as i see it for my entire life and that's not about to change. Take it or leave it.

ooops let me try this again...

all gages were functioning, (gas oil temp) and then poof nothing and all the actual light bulbs for interior and gages light up fuses are good and fusible link in bulkhead connector ok (I'm guessing middle main plastic connect on engine firewall side by the power brake booster ) but no power to the fuse block only on the on marked instruments.....
Oh wow the wiring diag you pointed me to is so much more precise than the 1972 haynes! Thank-you Thank you Thank-you Dan
I'm glad it got dark and started to rain here (winter weather adviseory here ) now I can look at diags and thaw out. thanks all for your input, I know more about my 72 duster than my 06 magnum and my dakota

more later Neil

ok neil,

now your gauges are not working and your dash illumination lamps are?

there is no power going to your fuse. which one?

how did you test to verify the fusible links and bulkhead connector are okay? did you just look at them and clean them up, or did you actually test for voltage at the appropriate wires on the inside of the bulkhead, with a multimeter?

and what is an on marked instrument?

if there is no power to the fuse block and everything tests okay at the bulkhead you have only a very short section of wire from the bulkhead to the fuseblock to test. unfasten the fuse block, pull it down, and start looking/testing. until you have power to the fuse restored it doesnt matter what is happening at the cluster.

and dan, can you post the link for the haynes manual instructions? i seem to have lost it...

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I've been calling it as i see it for my entire life and that's not about to change. Take it or leave it.

Ooh, yeah, you gotta get out from under that Haynes book. They're worthless at best (and generally worse than that; they tend to contain a lot of wrong info).

Step: I think it's a typo that's confusing you. It looks to me as if he meant to type "...the one marked instruments", referring to the fuse that protects the instrument cluster feed.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

Ohp! Duh, I read the question wrong! You are definitely correct, VR has nothing to do with gauge lights. I thought he was saying that neither gauges or lights were functioning.

Dan speaks true wisdom, Haynes manuals will usually only get you into trouble. Hairy pictures and incorrect info on prodecures won't help much.

If the fusible link is ok, then I would recommend what Step said and test between the firewall and fuse block. There isnt much that can go wrong there. Since you say there is no voltage to the block, I recommend doing a Voltage drop test between the fuse block and the firewall connector. If there is ANY reading with both leads hooked to the same wire, that means you have excessive resistance in the wire, and thus, no voltage to the fuse block.

~THOR~

_________________
1984 D100 Shorty Custom
Certified Auto Appraiser - RevItUp Classic Appraisals
President - Cherry City Bombers CC
Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

Thanks... I have a ?,, I'm using next door neighbor's fluke 75 series digital multimeter and never used a digital before ( just a test light).
volts ac or ohms? 7 settings on this meter and no instuctions
I really don't want to fry his meter.

Volts AC wont help you. You want volts DC, which on a Fluke meter it won't actually say DC. For a voltage drop test, you want the Volts reading without the letters AC on the screen. You can also just measure the resistance in the OHM setting.

That meter has auto Scaling, so pay attention to the numbers and the bar going across the bottom of the screen when you get a number. Check these things out, and let us know what you get back. Don't worry about frying the meter, the only way you can really do that is by trying to find 600v plus, or more than 10A. Since we aren't testing amperage, you should be fine.

~THOR~

_________________
1984 D100 Shorty Custom
Certified Auto Appraiser - RevItUp Classic Appraisals
President - Cherry City Bombers CC
Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

update for you....I went outside to check fusebox and wiring, put the key in AND EVERYTHING WORKED! normally I'd be jumping up and down for joy, but no it makes me really wonder were my problem is

Somehow I am not surprised...

~THOR~

_________________
1984 D100 Shorty Custom
Certified Auto Appraiser - RevItUp Classic Appraisals
President - Cherry City Bombers CC
Part of Tyrde-Browne Racing

have a friend watch the gauges/lights or whatever youre having trouble with, while you wiggle the wires on each side of the bulkhead one by one. you can quickly pass/fail your bulkhead connections this way.

that the lights/gauges are working sporadically usually points to a bad connection.

_________________
I've been calling it as i see it for my entire life and that's not about to change. Take it or leave it.