No action from small guages 81 Coupe?

[AUSSIEVETTEMAN]

No action from small guages in RHD 81 Coupe?

We have an 81 Coupe here in Australia. Yesterday while driving, we noticed that the small guages stopped working.
Every guage is stuck on the last reading they took.
Could this be the Printed Circuit behind the guages?
We have checked the fuses and everthing is ok there.

The car is basically standard except the conversion to RHD, which incorporates a Toyota steering box and it also has Ford A/C.
The wiring has been butchered for the last 22 years, but everything still seems to work. We are in the middle of having an Auto Electrician look at the probs, but that won't happen until Tuesday 22/04/2003.

Can anyone help?

 

[Vette/Berlina-coupe]

Unique right-hand driver-position...

-Yep, -sounds like a bad common-ground(black-wire) connection feeding to the central-gauge cluster; --might try pounding your fist or a rubber-tipped hammer around the center-console structure, -per chance it reconnects your ground for a while, -but also possible a push-on connector just fell-off. You can initially detatch the upholstered/L&R-panels at each side of the console, to poke around while watching the gages for reactivation. Try to pick-up a really excellent trouble-shooting Factory/Repair-manual on Ebay when you get a chance. Nowthen, -is the dashboard thus somehow reversed left-to-right praytell; which explains why the wiring got extensively messed with; presuming while driving you're looking at the speedo-tach assembly not the glovebox!! Is the steering-gear Toyota/R&P-type (power-assist)? We could sure go for a picture or two.... ~Bob vH


afterword: -wow, your pix suggest it was a lot of work to get it right; so is the steering-gear still a pitman-arm type, or is it rack&pinion? And is the upper/steer-column still the original C3 component with tilt&tele?

 

[AUSSIEVETTEMAN]

Unique right hand driver

The steering box is Toyota Cressida power steering. The brake booster is still on the LH side, but a rod controls the brakes when applied from the RH side.

Thanks for the info, I thought it may be something like that.
I have attached some pics. They may not be too clear, but one or two may show the guages stuck in there positions.
We have the car out this morning and as soon as I turned the ignition on, all the guages went back to normal.
However, when I just took these pics, they were all stuck in the last positions again.

 

[AUSSIEVETTEMAN]

Another pic

Another pic

 

[Yoda]

A & T,

Welcome to the Corvette Action Center Community Sure glad you found your way over here, and thanks for the L81 VetteRegistry registration

Lot's of great folks here and at the Registry.

I agree with what Bob vH said about it being something common to all the gages, like a ground or bad connection. When pounding around the dash.. be carefull not to crack the dash

I've found removing the seats makes it a whole lot easier to access the center console and panel screws. Being your's is Right Hand Drive, I wonder if they moved the dash common ground point??? it is normally on the Left side up under the dash on the steel cage by the windshield..

Welcome aboard and enjoy the