ford 3000 voltage stabilizer

joe201

Member
Does anyone know how to check the voltage stabilizer located on the instrument cluster? I'm having trouble with my heat gauge reading a little high and think it might be bad.I replaced the voltage regulator this spring and replaced the big long battery with a smaller truck battery with high cranking amps. It starts great but when I started baling hay I noticed that the heat gauge was reading alittle high and ran out of gas once when my gauge was reading 1/8 th.Just wondering if any of these things would be a factor. I like to fix something instead of just throwing parts at it til its fixed, much cheaper and easyer on the nuckels.
Thanks for your input Joe C
 
(quoted from post at 18:43:57 10/01/12) Does anyone know how to check the voltage stabilizer located on the instrument cluster? I'm having trouble with my heat gauge reading a little high and think it might be bad.I replaced the voltage regulator this spring and replaced the big long battery with a smaller truck battery with high cranking amps. It starts great but when I started baling hay I noticed that the heat gauge was reading alittle high and ran out of gas once when my gauge was reading 1/8 th.Just wondering if any of these things would be a factor. I like to fix something instead of just throwing parts at it til its fixed, much cheaper and easyer on the nuckels.
Thanks for your input Joe C
he answer is that I don't know a really good way to tell most folks how to measure one, because of the way they work.

It can be misleading to say it limits the
voltage to the gauge. It averages the voltage to the gauge by switching on and off much like a turn signal flasher. It does not convert 12V to
5V or limit the out put to 5V,,, its on and off time should
average around 5V. If it were on for 1 second at 12V and off
for one second 0V then the average would be 6V. It is not possible to measure this with a digital voltmeter and not even with an analog voltmeter as to rate is too fast for the needle to settle down, but with the analog meter at least you can see the tic-toc going on as it switches. It must have a good ground to regulate properly. If you had an oscilloscope AND KNEW for sure that the average is supposed to be the often quoted 5 volts, then you could arrive at a good measured number, but...........not everyone has an oscilloscope like I do.
 
i'll check and see if all connections are tight.
I changed the voltage regulator and went to a smaller battery after first hay cutting was done and hadn't ran tractor that much,but noticed that fuel gauge was off a little but didn't notice heat gauge difference until started cutting hay a couple weeks ago. Just wondering if that could cause any of these problems. Don't want to over heat my motor,and it didn't seen to be running hot. I looked in operators manual it said thermostat starts to open at 188 degrees and full open at 212 degrees.I guess I'll use meat thermometor soon as rain stops, and see what temp is. Well thanks for the help!Any other thoughts?
Joe C
 
Since both gauges are off a bit & you recently replaced the ICVR, then I expect that it is not exactly correct (at least not same as old unit). Such is "quality" these days! :(
That is assuming the ICVR is well grounded.

Probably just have to make mental note of "new normal" temp and "new normal" empty unless you want to tinker with swapping out ICVRs or messing with resistor experiments. I don't have temperature gauges on all my tractors and usually perk up at the mist created by radiator cap releasing pressurize coolant/steam. I fill them with fuel when I start out & know how many hours I get on a tank for each tractor, so I get by. Walking a mile through fields & woods in the dark a long time ago has helped me remember to fill 'em up before I set out!
 
guess we could call it duty cycle?

I've often wondered how the cluster would react to a true full time regulated 5 or 6v supply using a 78 series tip packaged vreg IC.. like a 7805 or 7806... just never had the gumption to dink with it.. :)
 
(quoted from post at 09:02:30 10/02/12) guess we could call it duty cycle?

I've often wondered how the cluster would react to a true full time regulated 5 or 6v supply using a 78 series tip packaged vreg IC.. like a 7805 or 7806... just never had the gumption to dink with it.. :)
ince the gauge needle is moved by a bi-metal strip, I expect a 7805 reg would work just fine. Some of that broad series of regulators are adjustable & would offer a "fine tuning" for gauge accuracy, too. Just have to put enough filter caps around the IC reg to protect it from tractor electrical system transients/surges. If I had such a tractor & the ICVR failed, I would do that.
 
(quoted from post at 18:57:10 10/02/12)
All I can tell you is the gauge will go up in smoke if a constant voltage is supplied... Even 6V....
h, oh! Sounds like experience speaking. :shock:
 

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