[spankthru]

on my 67 el camino, on the back of the gauge cluster there is a silver box, about 1"x2"x1-1/2" its silver, looks _like_ a relay only writing on it is a "12v" stamped on it, there are three prongs coming out of it, its not hooked up so i cant trace the wires, im wondering what this box is...

[bailey40ford]

This could be a voltage regulator, some old guage clusters required a stable supply voltage for the instruments, electrical fuel, temp and oil. A regulator was often fitted to the rear of the cluster and had a 12v ignition supply to it, then out of it was a stable 12v (sometimes a bit less) for the guages. This stopped the instruments moving up and down irratically due to charge variations and other loads. With todays improved alternators and charge sytems the supply is usually taken straight from the ignition.
Hope this helps.

[troy-curt]

i HAVE A 66 AND A 67, they don`t have anything like that.
With no wires connected, hard to tell.

[spankthru]

this voltage regulator sounds like what it would be, but im confident in my new delco alternator so ill probably take it off, troy-curt, cool didnt know you had any elky's, i love working on my 67, its a wickid car

[troy-curt]

Sparkthru;
Check my album, there should be some pictures there. They may not be very good, I`m just learning this computer thing,and sending pictures and moveing them around is the hardest of all.
When I finelly get one sent , I useraly? don`t know how I did it.lol

Troy;

[troy-curt]

Sparkthru;
I`m going to try to atch. a picture????????????

[spankthru]

sweet ride troy, although im going for the complete opposite look on my camino, no chrome, death iron gray paint job, pure obscene power !

[troy-curt]

I`ll try this again;

[troy-curt]

That last one wasn`t very clear;
This is the eng in the 66 ,355, DZ cam, intake ,holly,dist and heads. 700R4 and 12 bolt pose--373s 4 wheel disc.

Power windows,AC,gauges,floorshift,console,bucket seats,tinted glass.

Compleat fram off every thing new. Drives like a new car.[IMG]dcpoo852.jpg[/IMG]

[woodz428]

Sounds like constant voltage unit (or regulator) , they were used to keep the gauge voltage level so that they wouldn't fluctuate with the charging current. If the gauges start getting weird (for instance the temp gauge,fuel gauge,oil pressure gauge start getting high readings at the same time, or low) it probably needs replaced. They were pretty common for many years.

[troy-curt]

Must of been on the old generater systems.