FUN with Guages!!

[Zedyone_kenobi]

Well I started my guage swapout. I had an extra amp/fuel, and an extra clock, so I decided to get those ready and would swap them out when time permitted. Well inbetween naps of my 1 year old I found some time to get the glove box out and remove my factory clock. It was quite easy with the glove box out of the way.

Well the first thing I noticed was the font on the replacement clock was different. This worried me. To make sure I was not wasting time on the clock, I removed the voltmeter from its holster (what, you don’t have a fluke voltmeter as a sidearm) and testing the blue wire which according to the wiring diagram should be a 12v source.

Wait, let me back up. There are three things that go into the back of a 1971 clock housing. The light bulb, WHICH JUST PULLS OUT. I must have rotated it about a skillion times before I realized it just pulls out! So don’t cut those nice OEM wires in your dash people, just gently pull out the factory bulb. But I digress. So you have the bulb going into the back of the guage, and you have a small rubber grommet with a black and a blue wire coming out of it. The blue should have 12 volts constantly even with the key out of the car. Which makes sense as the clock would only work when the car is running, which is great if you have an outboard engine in your car and you need to know the hours on it, but otherwise, you want 12v constant. The black is of course a ground.

So when I tested my blue wire, it did in fact have 12.6 volts. Yeah. Next step was to make some jumpers to hook up my battery straight to the clock. NO dice, my clock was non functional. I suspect it’s a rather simple fix though. AS all my gears turned smoothly and nothing looked out of place. I may try to replace the lone resistor soldered to the wires to see if that helps, but that’s another day.

Next step was to hook up my spare clock, with the slightly different face plate. And curiously, my spare clock had the word “QUARTZ” on the bottom. Remembering that there was a website called www.zclocks.com I looked at that and sure enough, it appears to be one of his. The face plate, and rear case were identical to the ones pictured on the website. When I took it apart, it had a very modern looking plastic case that was white but tranasparent where you could see the clock mechanism. When I hardwared it to the battery, it immediately began to tick. YEAH. Only problem is the backing of the guage has no place to mount it to the chassis like my stock guage. Unless I fabricate an L-bracket and epoxy it to the back, I am not sure what to do. Picture three below shows the lack of any mounting hardware, so any ideas?

http://www.zclocks.com/images/portfolio/clock-1.jpg

http://www.zclocks.com/images/portfolio/clock-2.jpg

http://www.zclocks.com/images/portfolio/clock-3.jpg

[Unkle]

Gauges not guages , as in brakes not breaks . Sorry , pet ''peave'' of mine .:paranoid:

Edited February 23, 2009 by Unkle

[Zedyone_kenobi]

ooops, should have proof read, fair enough

[Zedyone_kenobi]

update. I just talked with RON at Zclocks and he has agreed to rebuild my factory clock to quartz specs. This I think will be the beginning of a short down time for my car. I am going to put her back on stands and switch out some bushings and mounts, as well as get my carbs redone at Ztherapy.

[sblake01]

Gauges not guages , as in brakes not breaks . Sorry , pet ''peave'' of mine .:paranoid:

Or some ot the others I've seen: 'very' not 'vary' or 'intents and purposes' not 'intensive purposes', or....well I've learned to ignore that sort of thing. Evidentally the obliteration of the English language is here to stay. I even find myself slipping into some of those habits when on a website. It will drive you nuts if you let it because it's not going away anytime soon. And 'peave' is actually 'peeve' unless you meant that tongue-in-cheek:) Edited February 23, 2009 by sblake01

[JonnyRock]

Or some ot the others I've seen: 'very' not 'vary' or 'intents and purposes' not 'intensive purposes', or....well I've learned to ignore that sort of thing. Evidentally the obliteration of the English language is here to stay. I even find myself slipping into some of those habits when on a website. It will drive you nuts if you let it because it's not going away anytime soon. And 'peave' is actually 'peeve' unless you meant that tongue-in-cheek:)

Welcome to teh internets everyone! I can haz spellink?

And I'm pretty sure it was intentional, judging by the quotes.

[sblake01]

No matter. I was just going along with what he said. Like I said, it doesn't bother me.

[JonnyRock]

It wasn't anything you said Stephen. I was just making a general comment as well, and used your quote to tie it in.

[Unkle]

Yes , ''peave'' is ''tic'' or ''tung in cheak''. No emoticom smilie for it !

Edited February 23, 2009 by Unkle

[TexasRider260Z]

Hmmmm.. good practice there as I know another one, or two :classic: that dont work correctly. Keep up the good work there mio.

" Oh haiel, I kant spaiel - but I kan build one dem dare little ol' Z cars, and rope, shoot, and ride too!" says the local Texas cowboy. LOL

[Zedyone_kenobi]

SUCCESS~!!!

yesterday I swapped out my amp/fuel gauge with my spare and joy of joys, it performed flawlessly. My amp needle responds to all inputs form the lights, the horn, etc, and rests beautifully in the middle when off. Also, my glass had come unglued on my old gauge, and now its well adhered to the bezel. So my needles can move uninhibited. My fuel gauge has never worked this well. I love it when things just work. And I am very happy to report, that upon inspection, not a single wire was butchered under my dash... and I left it that way. I used all the factory connections and managed not a single splice.

Now I am going to send my clock to www.zclocks.com for refurbishment and I will have a full compliment of functional gauges!

Pics to come soon.

[TexasRider260Z]

I will be looking to check this out. I was thinking of switching to a Volt / Fuel gauge on the 260.