Speedo fix fail - caused other problems - 55 Fairlane

[Jim.UT]

I attempted to fix my noisy speedo but failed. My initial problem was extracting the speedo. I thought the four nuts and hold down brackets I could see from the floor of the car would allow me to remove the whole cluster. I was wrong. After spending too much time on my head, contorted under the dash I was able to remove the 4 nuts off the studs only to find 4 more under them that also had to be removed. I only managed to lose one of the nuts so I guess that's a partial win.

At any rate, removing those 8 nuts only allowed me to remove the dome on top. The speedo and instrument cluster remained firmly attached. I'm 70 years old and after a couple of hours of standing on my head under the dash I was physically spent. So I replaced the nuts (except for the lost one...fell out of my fingers and never reached the floor...it's trapped somewhere in the mass of wires behind the instrument cluster...it'll fall out someday) and decided to wait for another day.

However now when I drive the car I notice that the fuel gauge and temp gauge no longer work....at all. Obviously my ham fisted attempt to work behind the dash has disconnected a crucial wire or two. Before I dive back under there, can anyone tell me where the likely disconnect is for those two gauges?

Thank you!

[dmsfrr]

This diagram is actually for a '55 T-Bird but for the Fuel and Temp gauges it should be the same.

The two gauges both receive power from a shared Black/green wire connected to the Accessory terminal on the ignition switch. That wire has likely broken off of its terminal lug at the ignition switch.
.

[Jim.UT]

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Thank you! That helps. Now I know where to look first.