I've now put 190 miles on the speedo Rich repaired and it continues to work perfectly.
OEM parts will fail with the same frequency as the one in your car...is it better to buy a new oem cluster vs. have it repaired by rich?
is it better to buy a new oem cluster vs. have it repaired by rich?
You’re probably not going to find a cluster and probably not a Tach or Speedo unless they’re used. As Tony said, you want the reissue Autometers anyway.
But it sounds like you can rebuild the bigs now so a least that’s an option.
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Thank you! So no point in getting the new speedo from ford. Better and cheaper to have rich fix the gauges.
Intermittent gauge behaviour, especially if they recover after running for a while and restarting the engine, is caused by a marginal battery. Have you confirmed the battery is OK?
Secondly, I think that Rich's request is for people to test here and now, not for someone that will "get back to you in the spring"...
Gauges are not that difficult a job. I've had the panel out several times replacing gauges and testing another vendors (now discontinued) solution.
There is a nice description here:
https://www.fordgtforum.com/forums/threads/gauge-replacement-how-to.20781/
FWIW - my Autometer vacuum bit the dust last year...
I let my local Ford dealer install a new fuel gauge a few years back. The technician scratched the hell out of the leather dash. So off my GT went to Rich’s to get the dash reskinned and while it was there I had him replace all the small gauges with new revised Autometer OEMs. All of the small gauges are still working perfectly. I’m probably about to jinx myself but I’m still running the original Speedometer and Tach. Knock on wood.Had a 'marginal battery' situation happen yesterday. The only gauge remaining working was the Fuel gauge.
Talk about being upset, a real gut punch.
I went on my drive anyway because the car is well maintained all liquids are at proper levels etc.
After I got back in I shut of the ignition, had to arrange things in the shop and when I restarted the car to pull in all the gauges came back to life.
Before this yesterday, two of the gauges were already dead
(Alt & Vacuum)
I have been wanting to change those two out but now I'm thinking to just do the entire cluster of small gauges and see what happens with the Speedo and Tach.
I know, "If it ain't broke don't fix it"
but the eventuality of the OE gauge failing and all.
I like doing my own work
(whenever possible and if I can handle it)
Are the gauges a difficult job to do?
My better judgment tells me to have someone like Rich do the job.
But only the speedo and tach go to Rich. Get the small gauges directly from Autometer. If you have bad small gauges and have the panel out it is suggested to replace them all - the cost isn't that much.I changed mine to Speedhuts myself. Not a bad project. Will be sending my OEM dead ones to Rich over the summer to have them fixed.