Guage cluster wiring

[pghjeeper]

The wiring on my guage has seen better days and I would like to replace it. I was looking at the illistration in the 20 manual, illistration 2-51 and it shows that the spider wiring conects to each guage then a central wire. Is this the ground side? Are there two spider wiring sets? or does the spider wset connect to a central ground and the positive side of each guage comes from the sender? Before I tear into it I would like to know what materials to order and have on hand.

[brute4c]

The spider harness is power to the gauges. The gauges also have a sending unit wire, where applicable.

Grounding is accomplished through the mount of the gauge to the panel and the panel to the dash. Since the ground is essentially 4 dzus fasteners and the gauge pieces, many people have ground issues with these trucks...many other MV's too by the way.

I know people who have run a wire from the dash panel to a known good ground to help...1 member went as far as to wire each gauge seperately to a known good ground.

[Barrman]

Just buy a spider wire from a usual place or E-Bay, unbolt the dash, unscrew the speedo cable and set the panel on the battery cover. Or better yet, you sit on the battery cover and put the gauges on your knees. Unplug wire #25 which is the power to the spider wires. Use a 3/8" or maybe 5/16" wrench to unhook the spider harness from the back of the speedo. Use a small screw driver and maybe some pliers to carefully undo each guages power supply without pulling the Packard shell off the gauge. Coat the new wire ends with di electric grease or just plain old Vaseline and plug them back in. Do the same to wire # 25 and bolt it back in.

10 minutes and you are done.

[pghjeeper]

Thanks guy my hope is that the packard conectors on the wires from the sending units don't fall apart when I pull them out. Barman I undind the dzus bolts and the guage panel only would come out about 2 inch or so. Part of it was the speedo bu tthe wiring didn't look that long either.

[Barrman]

Mine doesn't have stock wires anymore, so I made mine to beable to lay out by the battery tray. I forgot I added that feature.

Howver, I just walked over to another stock M715 and there is enough room once the speedo cable is undone to lay the panel on your knees or balance it on the shifter knob.

[rboltz]

The wires are short. I cussed this also when rewiring my truck. Why they had no slack is a mystery to me. One thing it does, though is you can't get the left side sending wires connected to the right side gages by accident. They don't reach!

[Binford]

I was mounting a CB radio under my dash today and found you could get very good access to the backside of the gauge cluster wiring from the passenger footwell. Kind of a PITA working on it that way, but no different from a regular civie vehicle then. Probably easier because everything is wide open!

[pghjeeper]

Ok I got my spider harness today quick question does it matter which side the power wire runs to on the gauges? I know the spyder wires are for power and the other is the sender. The generator guage is self axplainitory.

[Barrman]

Yes it does matter. I can't remember which way the M715 has them, but it seems the power wires are all toward the drivers side. The -20 shows it.

http://www.m715zone.com/vb/view.php?pg=20chap2-18

Yep, all on the drivers side:

[Binford]

That picture work for you, Tim? I don't see it.