could someone give me the rundown on the f600 dash swap

[nelson3]

ive aquired a f600 dash cluster finally!actually i PAID for it.but anyway what all is involved in the swap.things like fuel sending unit,speedometer well all of it.what other pieces will i have to get to complete the swap?and also what is the knob on the left of the panel for?i can do minor wiring and so on but dont want to get it all torn down without some help.thank you guys.also i love the part on your 67 rest. i check everyday to see if you have anything else done.ill be back with several questions im sure!thanks in advance nelson

[FORDification]

Congrats on your purchase, nelson. You know, I've got one of those too, but it'll be a little while until my project is far enough along to research that area out. I've seen this question asked many times, but there's never a useable response....therefore, let me add one more to the list. I'll tell you everything I know...which shouldn't take too long!

Most people who use the F-600 panel remove the back gauge pod and just use the flat panel section for mounting aftermarket gauges. Then you'd just use the sending units that came with the new gauges.

However, if you're wanting to use the existing gauges, that's a different story. How it hooks up depends a lot upon whether your truck has an idiot-light instrument panel or one with full instrumentation. Trucks with full instrumentation panels had a wiring harness with a shunt built in to it to power the ammeter...trucks with idiot lights didn't have this shunt in the wiring harness. What, you may ask, is a 'shunt'? Well, I found a good 'layman's' description a while back in the archives of the Classic Mustang site:

A shunt is simply a resistor of a very very low resistance, like a big wire. It carries most of the current of the ammeter, and the ammeter measures voltage across the shunt to find current.

For example, if you want to measure 100 amps, you won't find many ammeters that will measure that much current, so to make one, you would use a shunt. The shunt would be a resistor with a value of about .01 ohms. The resistance has to be low enough not to make much of a difference in the circuit (or the ammeter itself will cause the current to be low because of
it's high resistance).

If you put 100 amps across a .01 ohm resistor, by ohms law, Voltage=Current*Resistance, you get Voltage=100 amps*.01 ohms, so Voltage = 1 volt. So you use a voltmeter to measure the voltage across the shunt, and you have an ammeter. 1 Volt = 100 amps, .1 Volt = 10 amps, etc.

Most ammeters use shunts of one type or another, most times they are internal to the gauge and you can't see them. They use shunts because it's very hard to wire a meter with wire large enough to carry that kind of current, so the shunt carries the current and the meter measures the voltage across the shunt, which indicates how much current is present.

As to whether you like your ammeter or voltmeter better on a car, it's really a matter of personal preference.

http://lists.twistedpair.ca/pipermail/c ... 12903.html

Here is a basic graphic of how a shunt works (borrowed from http://www.allaboutcircuits.com/vol_1/chpt_8/4.html) :

..and here's a shot I took of the factory Ford pickup shunt in my wiring harness:



The shunt is wired in-between the alternator and the battery, and the two yellow wires you see are what go out to the ammeter. If your truck doesn't have the full-instrumentation instrument panel and accompanying wiring harness, you'd either have to swap your harness with one that did, or find out the specs (which I don't currently have) on the factory shunt and wire in a Radio-Shack-style resistor yourself.

The water temperature and oil pressure gauges require gauge-type sending units, so if you currently have an idiot-light instrument panel, you'll have to replace these sending units.

If your panel came with a factory tachometer, you'll have to go through a little bit of trouble to use it. It's a mechanical-drive tach, meaning your truck has to have a distributor with a tach drive built into it. If you're installing this panel in a truck equipped with an FE engine (360/390/428) you can get a factory mechanical-drive distributor out of an F600 if it was equipped with an FT engine like a 330 and use it, but you'll have to use a special bushing in the FE block. Ask your dealer for the C4TZ-12367-A bushing, it's around $30.

If your F-600 panel came with a vacuum gauge, hooking that up should be pretty easy...just hook it up to any full-time vacuum source on the intake manifold.

Hope this helps....good luck, and keep us informed as to how things go!

[custom68]

Is the shunt located under the hood between the battery and the alternator? Also should I be able to go to a junkyard and find a truck that has the shunt and just cut it out and wire it into my truck. ??

[FORDification]

Yes on both questions. I don't see why you couldn't wire in a factory-style shunt into your existing harness.

...oh, and welcome to the forums!

[68F250]

Hi Keith! Hey just thinking out loud here, see if this makes any sense.

Over the years I’ve read Mustang articles on how to retrofit the deluxe gauge panel in place of the idiot lights. For the ammeter, all they do is run one wire from the Batt. stud on the alternator and another wire from the battery side of the starter solenoid. Both those wires are then run up to the ammeter. This would imply that the shunt is already there in the harness. What I really think is going on is that there is no extra “shuntâ€Â

[FORDification]

Barry: I remember quite a while back when this subject came up you sent me a link to check out, where a Mustang enthusiast was talking about this on a webpage. I lost that bookmark due to a hard drive crash, so if you happen to have it again, please re-send it.

First of all let me say that electrical-type problems are probably my weakest area. I know the basics and that's about it....and sometimes it's JUST enough to get me into trouble. That being said....

I would think the first thing we'd have to really find out is exactly how much the factory shunt drops the voltage. Then you'd have to measure the resistance that the two leads to the ammeter (that you would add) would compare. I would imagine that the factory ammeter was designed for use with a shunt of a specific resistance value, and changing that value would also change the reading of the gauge. So it would seem to me that your idea would work if you could duplicate the resistance value with the larger leads which, as you said, would act as a shunt.

Whaddya think? Am I approaching this right?

[nelson3]

keith, thanks for all the info.i know im asking alot of old news stuff here but i will definitly use all this good information.while your sitting their in your pajamas with nothing to do figure on this, ive collected 3 or 4 f600 clusters im trying to decide what look is best and like you i like the 67 look over the others,my question is this,"now im splitting hairs now" i like the speedo but i want the white needles not the red one.can i swap them around.illoked at it a minute and decided to ask before i ruined them both it took 6 bone yards down here before i could find one.whoever said they were easy to find aint looked in UCLA "upper corner of lower alabama" thanks keith i LOVE this sight!!!! bruce

[FORDification]

Bruce, if you want a white needle all you have to do is remove the rear pod off the main panel which will completely expose the front of the speedo. Then you can just paint the needle any color you want.

[FoMoCo]

As a side note. The old Ford school busses have these gauges BUT they have circut board like the 70-72. If you pass an old Ford bus give it quick look for wiring or gauges.

Nick

[cobraF100]

The Gauge Pod that Keith has listed above I have all the Gauges for it that I removed if anyone wants them.
The F600 Panel I got from Keith so he has first takes on them but if anyone else wants them there yours.

[NM5K]

Whaddya think? Am I approaching this right?>>>>>

I would think so. I'd like to do this swap myself, but I have the dreaded idiot light panel, so as you know, it's not a simple R@R to change...
What I would do is measure the voltage before and after the shunt to see what the voltage drop is. Ohms law could be used to calculate the resistance needed, but myself, I wouldn't bother. I'd just get an ohm meter, and then see what the resistance of the shunt is. I would then substitute another resister, or shunt, and check the "after" voltage. If it's the same as the original, it should work. I'd try to find an original ford shunt if possible...One thing...If the shunt is a thick wire, it would almost read a dead short on the average meter, I would think. You would probably need a fairly decent meter to read that low a resistance value accurately. This is why I think it would be easiest to just wire in a factory shunt. You know it's right...I'd love to have the tach up on the panel , like your's has...Way cool...I could get rid of the engine analyser sitting in front of my shifter on the floor...I use it for a tach as it is. Also can check all my other stuff like dwell, voltage, etc while driving...Change my points? The dwell meter is in the truck ready to go... I'd still prefer a dash mounted tach though...The analyser is not lit, and is fairly useless at night unless I pass under some lights...My speedo is not very accurate...Reads low...I tried changing the gear, but didn't help much. I think my gear in the tranny itself is about shot, and slips meshing with the other gear...I use the tach to *know* for sure what speed I'm going. I used a GPS unit to calibrate it...IE: I do about 1500 at 35. 1750 at 40..2000 at 45.., etc...I have a little paper chart on the tach showing the calibrated speeds per rpm for each 5 mph increase starting from 20 mph...MK

[nelson3]

keith,i realize that but is the needle going to glow like red does in light?thats my concern if there is a glow paint im set. let me know thanks bruce

[68F250]

Oh yeah Keith, I remember sending you that link! Sure can’t remember where it was but I also remember reading it in one of those Mustang magazines, MM, M&F or something like that, will have to check my old rags or maybe it was online?

Anyway, I think you are on the right track. One of these days I’m gonna reverse engineer that darn circuit and see exactly what Ford did. The ammeter’s got to be in the milliamp range, I have a precision p.s. that cranks down into the millivolts. With that we could see what the full-scale deflection of the ammeter is without burning it up. Once we know that voltage, the current and resistance can be derived. The only missing piece is, what was the full-scale deflection suppose to mean, 60 amps, 80 amps?

Here’s a link that explains it better and you can plug in numbers for fun: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hb ... ammet.html

Another interesting measurement would be to hook up a voltmeter with one lead on the batt. stud of the alt. and the other lead to the battery side of the starter solenoid. Start the truck up and then monitor the voltage as the initial battery charge surge comes out of the alternator. That’s the blip of charge you see right after it’s started up and running. That would give us an idea of the ammeter scale.

One of these days…

Barry

[68F250]

Found that link!

http://www.midnightdsigns.com/james/Ins ... Gauges.htm

A FYI, '66 and later Stangs use a gauge like our trucks, the '65 and earlier Stangs used an inductive amp gauge.