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On to the little problems, help needed!

R

roflcopter

New member
Joined
Sep 30, 2013
Location
Lower Alabama
So I got everything sorted out on my brick, well not everything, but it runs!

Now I'm chasing down a few little issues while I wait a paycheck or two to register it(gotta love FL for that). Anyways... I've done some searching and fixed quite a few issues, but these are the ones still on the table:

Temp Gauge - doesn't work
Fuel Gauge - doesn't work

Now I'm pretty sure these worked when I very first picked up the car, but my memory is a bit hazy. Neither one works at all now, and after doing some searching it seems that there is supposed to either be a voltage regulator or normalizer of some sort behind those gauges that is known to fail. I had some issues finding information that pertained to a 1985 though, they seem to be a bit of a crossover year. Well lost story short, I see no board or box or anything behind those gauges. There is one circular plug with ~8 wires going into it on that side of the cluster, and one single wire that connects to a blade connector towards the bottom of the cluster. All the wires from both of those run directly to a wire loom that goes towards the firewall and the passenger side of the car. Any ideas?

Vacuum lines - lots of broken ones

Is there a post somewhere with some sort of list of necessary ones? I'd like to clean everything up and eliminate as much as possible without going racecar mode on it. Specifically there are two that come off the top of the throttle body, one small, one large, that run towards the drivers side headlight area under the air filter box. I assume these go to the charcoal canister, I also know I'm going to have a hard time finding something to fit the little, hard one. Are both necessary? I know I need to keep some negative pressure through there to help crank case gasses and all make their way through the box but are both needed?

Cruise control - no worky

Honestly haven't tried to diagnose this yet, but if there are typical failure modes somewhere I'd love to see them.

Brake failure light - constantly on

I replaced a shot master cylinder, rebuilt all the calipers, and fixed a few leaks. The master cylinder needs to be bench bled again I think though, pedal has very little feel and foot to the floor doesn't really stop the car all too quickly. Will bleeding the system again and hopefully making them work better fix the light as well? Do I need to look into proportioning valves as well? I know these cars are notoriously complicated when it comes to brakes.

Thanks all!
 
OK, we know you are working on an '85 which was late in the evaporating wiring era but perhaps a little more info would help.

The voltage regulator is a 'chip' with 3 leads on it.
 
1985 Volvo 244GL
B230F
LH2.2 with Chrylser ignition

The whole 'engine' harness has been replaced, but not the ignition harness or the front chassis harness, haven't had any issues with any of the stuff for the other harnesses so I haven't bothered with them.

Where exactly would the regulator be? On the wires going into the cluster, attached to the back of the cluster itself? I'm not seeing anything that matches the descriptions on the interwebz.
 
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It's a little 3/8" square 'chip' grounded to the back of the instrument panel with a single screw. Having problems with both fuel and temp does point to that but it could also be a wiring issue. Do the panel lights all work?
 
Ah, found it. Can I just get a little 12V to 10V like 1.5A voltage regulator and use that from somewhere cheap? That would be quite easy. And yes, everything else in the cluster works fine it would seem, except I haven't been able to test the actual backlighting in a while because I don't have a working headlight switch in the car currently.
 
JohnLane said:
OP before you go too hog wild you may want to verify that you're getting power to the voltage stabilizer for the gauges.
Click to expand...

Battery voltage in 10 volts out and the last pin is grounded. First thing I would do is remove the wire from the temperature sender and ground it. The temp gauge should read full hot.
 
vlvman said:
Battery voltage in 10 volts out and the last pin is grounded. First thing I would do is remove the wire from the temperature sender and ground it. The temp gauge should read full hot.
Click to expand...

Good to know! I shall try that. Is it the upper or lower sensor that feeds the gauge?
 
roflcopter said:
Good to know! I shall try that. Is it the upper or lower sensor that feeds the gauge?
Click to expand...

It has a yellow wire going to it. After you ground it turn the key to run position just long enough to verify gauge operation. Leaving it at full hot will damage the gauge if left on to long.
 
vlvman said:
It has a yellow wire going to it. After you ground it turn the key to run position just long enough to verify gauge operation. Leaving it at full hot will damage the gauge if left on to long.
Click to expand...

Results! I got a friend to sit in the car with the key on and watch the gauge while I unplugged the wire going to the sensor and grounded it to the block, it slowly crept up to full hot over about 10 seconds or so, which seems a bit slow to me...

But the gauge did something, so the voltage regulator must not be completely shot. Is this normal operation, I can pick up a new temp sender tomorrow if needed.

I'll test the fuel gauge tomorrow and see where it's at, but I have a whole new sending unit, as well as LP pump in the car, replaced less than 30 miles ago(although that's 6 months time) that should still be operating properly, I hope.
 
OP is the thermostat stuck wide open?

Easy way to check is if the heater gets hotter than hell when set to hot.

If it has no thermostat the temp gauge may not move much if the radiator is a good one.
 
JohnLane said:
OP is the thermostat stuck wide open?

Easy way to check is if the heater gets hotter than hell when set to hot.

If it has no thermostat the temp gauge may not move much if the radiator is a good one.
Click to expand...

If memory is serving me right, I replaced the thermostat when I did everything else(including rad hoses so I'm pretty sure I would do the thermostat too) which was about a year ago, but less than 30 miles driven. The car does seem to be running hotter than usual, but I think that's due to my ignition timing being off, I'll have a light and get that sorted out this evening though.
 
1choice said:
what does it mean if that test is successful?

(having this exact problem after having switched harnesses, grey box is checked and connected.)
Click to expand...

Which harness did you replace? And testing that will tell you if it is w gauge/wiring issue or if it is the sending unit.
 
roflcopter said:
Which harness did you replace? And testing that will tell you if it is w gauge/wiring issue or if it is the sending unit.
Click to expand...

Thanks man!
I changed the Main harness, the one that goes under the manifold and usually has the ignition harness with it that has the stuff to go to the ICU. (but not the hidden ignition harness that follows the side, that one is actually "pristine".)

Thing is, I've actually got the instrument cluster out sitting right next to me :D ...I don't have the temperature compensation board... :oops: I guess mine didn't have one or something. I don't know why I did this. The temperature gauge worked fine before I changed the harness. I guess I need to figure out how to test the actual sensor now! Or get one of those gauges from harbor freight or something.

Since I did that test you did, and it worked just fine. I'm a little confused now. XD
 
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