Modern insturment panels with 'stab in gauges'

Turbogus

New member
Man, I hate these things. this may cross over to Jeeps later than mine but with the way the auto industry is going I thought I'd show some photos of what I'm contending with for errant gauge readings. Note: I am NOT a know it all, I'm learning as I go as I have found very little information about these kind of gauges/insturment panels.

In keeping with JeepHammer's idiom, I always do my best to provide POSITIVE soldered connections +/- in all of my auto applications, in order to not have to do things twice.

The following photos show teardown;

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here's the IP you may note the low reading of the oil pressure gauge, this I've detirmined is a flase reading (I HATE ELECTRICAL GAUGES).

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First remove anything piking through the IP (like this Trip OD reset knob)

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Also if you have any ancilliary switches these will have to be disconnected as well berfore removing the dash. On this application the light switch harness, snowplow lights, and bakup warning beeper defeat lever switch.

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Once the dash is removed this insturment panel has four set screw in the corners, then it just pulls right out (no harness to disconnect by means show in the following photo.

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This is what makes snap buckle electrical connectors unnessesary, this mates to a sub panel in the dash that makes contact with this circuit board.

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This is a shot of the back of the IP

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And this is how the mfr. proposed to have electrical connections to the gauges.

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A cloe up of these 'stab in' gauges from the backside.

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The gauges are screwed into the back of the ip at this location, this entails seperating first the clear plastic overshield, then taking note of gauge at rest positions (I have a functioning IP for this) then removing the needles with a plastic fork or other.
The screws holding the gauges into this plate are T9 torx

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These are the 'stab in' gauges

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The gauges are individually numbered as I suspect there are different impedance rules for each gauge.

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I took a Sharpie to the opposite side to eliminate confusion if the gauges get scrambled.

My plan is to first try to source through Mouser and others if these are available new. If not my plan is to clean then up as best I can with electrical parts cleaner.

More to come.
 

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Oh Man, you'd think with my constant reccomendations about JeepHammers' threads that I'd have thought of this first.
Oil Pressure Gauge ground.JPG

These type of gauges only make slight contact with no solder. The Circuit Board itself is pliable that compromises the connections. Is there some way to solder these for POSITIVE connection? Low temp solder? Unique tips?
 
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Edit: I went to my shop owner 'go to' guy and using an LED flashlight also noticed the gaps and he reccomended just pressing these tabs down with a pair of picks or screwdrivers equally on each side to bend the tabs into position once again. I sure as heck don't like this design, but what else is there to do?

Edit: The Oil Pressure gaige is still bottoming out after about 7 minutes of driving.
 
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