Running ford king seeley gauges on 12 v

[GB SISSON]

I am a fan of 12 v so I run my vehicles that way. I love my stock instrument panels and I have bought a good many extra gauges at swap meets etc. I have used the runtz things and a few others , cheap ones and expensive ones. I still have very unreliable gauges in both vehicles I have converted this way. The third, I made a rather amaturish inset panel with all vintage SW mechanical gauges from ebay and they tell me what I want to know. I am at the point with the six cyl jailbar tonner pickup where I need good gauges. I am inclined to wire them all up with one ford type resistor like in my '59 pickup I sold. I swayed away from the fold in the red tonner with a cummins diesel and later the ford tin on a toyota landcruiuser. With my H six truck I want it to be far closer to stock, so while I have searched this many times over the years, do I need to go full mechaincal again or is there something that makes these king seeley things work?

[koates]

You mention a Ford type resistor but there is no such thing but there is a voltage regulator that is fitted to the back of instrument panels on old mustangs and other 60s & 70s fords that controls the instrument voltage to about 5 volts. It is a chopper on-off type of control. Better still is a small electronic voltage regulator to power all your 6 volt gauges at a much more controlled voltage. It will power 3 or 4 gauges together. Forget the runz types, not good in my opinion and too expensive to buy one for each gauge. Make sure your gauge panel has a dedicated ground wire. Regards, Kevin.

[51 MERC-CT]

Ditto on the Ford instrument cluster voltage regulator.
Available from Carpenter or Napa etc.
https://www.dennis-carpenter.com/bro...er-voltage-reg

[GB SISSON]

Thanks! Sounds like just what I need. So at Napa I tell them I have a '66 mustang? Will I get the old chopper style or will it be this new, more steady type? Anyone have a good napa number?

[TJ]

I believe that Carpenter uses the original Ford part #. Napa or any parts house should be able to cross reference it. If you use the part # listed in the Carpenter ad you will find a lot of these on e-Bay. Probably just as easy to call Carpenter and buy from them as it appears there price is very competitive.

[19Fordy]

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Here's some good reading about the answer to your 12V KS gauge question.
https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showt...converting+12v

I used a CVR as explained in post #18. Conversion of BATT gauge also explained.

[fordor41]

here's what I did on my '41 . went to junkyard and got gauges from '70's ford pickup AND senders to match. dissasembled the stock 6V gauges, inserted 12V gauge movement. surprisingly the 12V movement will fit the 6V case exactly. bought a 12V-6V volt.reducer. from Ron Francis (VR-1).installed the truck senders, and reworked gauges with power supplied by the VR-1and they operated perfectly. mind you I had a ford 302 in our Ford but that's how I kept the stock gauge look with new gauges

[PeteVS]

A silicone diode has a voltage drop 0.7 volts when current is passed through it. I haven't done it but if one were to make a simple device with 8 or 9 diodes in series, that would result in a 5.6 or 6.3 voltage drop. So, one would get a 6 volt feed for gages or lamps or whatever, provided that the diodes are good for the current the sum of the devices pass.
(Perhaps this is what commercial voltage droppers do?)

[bobH]

I'll be a little 'off topic', but here's a thought. I hope there is an 'electronic wiz' here that can point out why I'm full of it...
My take on Ford gauges, say of the 46-48 era, is that they operate 'pulsating'. On my 47, I used a CVR from some 60's Ford. And, the CVR is also a 'pulsating' device. My results were only so-so. I got a reading, but not terribly accurate. And, I've lived with it. I would think that an experienced 'electronicer' could build a constant voltage power source, that would be a better way of powering the Ford gauges. My experience was that the series resistors, runtz, volt-a-drop, and other devices were simply not the ticket for Ford gauges. How about just a pot or resistor bridge, with a center tap? Opinions ???

[PeteVS]

Originally Posted by bobH

I'll be a little 'off topic', but here's a thought. I hope there is an 'electronic wiz' here that can point out why I'm full of it...
My take on Ford gauges, say of the 46-48 era, is that they operate 'pulsating'. On my 47, I used a CVR from some 60's Ford. And, the CVR is also a 'pulsating' device. My results were only so-so. I got a reading, but not terribly accurate. And, I've lived with it. I would think that an experienced 'electronicer' could build a constant voltage power source, that would be a better way of powering the Ford gauges. My experience was that the series resistors, runtz, volt-a-drop, and other devices were simply not the ticket for Ford gauges. How about just a pot or resistor bridge, with a center tap? Opinions ???

Any kind of resistor drops voltage sort of proportional to the current being passed through it. A diode will always drop the voltage by a fixed amount. The only thing that varying the current through it will cause is heat generated by the current times the voltage drop (0.7 V). This is why I suggested the use of diodes to drop voltage.

[koates]

bobH, have you been sleeping ? READ posts #2 & #3 which mentions electronic instrument voltage regulators. You are not suggesting anything new, because they have been available for years. Click on the dennis carpenter link in post number #3 which shows an electronic regulator which looks the same as the original Ford type. but controls the voltage much more accurately. Regards. Kevin.

[AKCJ]

Another great discussion guys. Very helpful for those of us trying to learn.

[bobH]

Originally Posted by koates

bobH, have you been sleeping ? READ posts #2 & #3 which mentions electronic instrument voltage regulators. You are not suggesting anything new, because they have been available for years. Click on the dennis carpenter link in post number #3 which shows an electronic regulator which looks the same as the original Ford type. but controls the voltage much more accurately. Regards. Kevin.

Not sleeping... post 2 mentions a cvr, as from an old Ford. Won't cut it, at least not in my experience. Post 3 talks about an equivalent from Dennis Carpenter. Ad says solid state. Maybe, just maybe, that would do it. But my point is being missed.... a REAL, Steady, 6V source. Dennis Carpenter's info, at least in that reference, does not indicate what his device does. Based on the info we have, I'd try Dennis' cvr, and see what it does. For 20-somethin bucks, worth a try. I wouldn't hold my breath.
Your idea of a "electronic voltage regulator", as you mentioned in post #2, sounds more in line with my thinking, of a "real, steady, 6V source".
For Pete... I've got some diodes here. I'll give it a try...

[GB SISSON]

From a guy who likes to think outside the box. Is a 6 volt battery a constant source? Something rechargeble would be nice. Motorcycle battery? Even better might be a battery that would fit inside a shell of the no longer needed factory 6 volt regulator on the firewall. Or a head mounted oil filter canister? I go for the quick-change oil system so dont use these... I am getting way ahead of myself now. Might be a good reason a 6v battery won't work. (Or isn't practical when a diode or other module is sufficient). As a very electron challenged person I still don't get what gizmo I should place between my 12 volt lead and my instrument panel.

[19Fordy]

GB: Post #8 in the thread below explains what to place between the 12V incoming lead and your 6V instrument panel. To get your BATT dash gauge to work you need to isolate the BATT gauge from the rest of the dash gauges and then use a 60 ohm resistor to reduce the incoming 12V to 6 volts so the BATT gauge will read properly. The stock 1940 BATT gauge is really a Voltage gauge. It's all explained here.
https://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showt...ford+voltmeter

[GB SISSON]

I have ordered the Dennis Carpenter solid state voltage reducer. I will report back after installation.