Have late ute dash and wiring in a 76 ute. We have an issue with intermittent starting have tried 3 different starter motors and they go alright for a bit but then nothing. Also we have no temp gauge or fuel gauge, but there is power to the fuel gauge wiring at tank but no power to the temp sender wiring that connects to sender at front of the head on A14. I'm lost, have gone through a lot of the wiring and cant find any broken or melted wires except for an earth lead that was melted as it was resting on one of my horns near the battery tray. Also i have no indicators.

Honestly the best modification I've done to my 1200 is a complete re wire.. You can buy hot rod re wiring kits from rocket ind. pretty cheap and it's the best ever modification I've ever done to my sedan..

I would think that you have two unrelated problems:

1. Starting problem
2. Gauge cluster problem

By now you know the starting problem is not caused by the starter.

The cluster problems can be caused by an un-earthed dash.

Andy I had dash issues, I grounded the dash to the metal frame of dash then to body for added measure.

I previously had the earth from engine to body melt under the battery tray. Sanded earth back to metal and rebolted earth- all good. Added a 2nd earth from block to chasis now batt in boot too.

Thanks gents It's a new day and with your help and some research in the tech wiki i hopefully will be able to solve it today. The next 1200 i buy if i do will be bought on 2 principles as little rust as possible and unmolested wiring harness.

O.K so after a good sleep and as above some simple research we found the battery earth cable to be mounted poorly/out of order. So we grabbed another one and mounted as wiki says to the oil pump/block and it had a joiner/mount in it to mount to battery tray as well so we did that and added a nice earth from engine to horn mount on bottom rail and bam she starts every time now. We also removed the dash again and on close inspection discovered its had some repairs to the copper tracks and it also had a few broken copper tracks so will try and repair them tomorrow and see how we go.

I bridged some copper tracks on my old dash via light socket to light socket with wire. Worked a treat. Better than trying to solder old copper and board.
But you're used to fixing computers so your solder work 1 million times better than mine.

I was amazed an earth could do that too Andy in mine when I had issues too.

Yeah for a guy that worked doing Left Hand to right Hand wiring coversions i still get baffled by little things. Its amazing how so many things come down to earthing probs yet how quick i forget that. After all a circuit has to be completed to be a circuit. Like a donut needs a hole in the middle that nothing makes it something.

Too true and no nige I didn't work in the bakery that put the holes in the donuts.








I did it for fun.


Glad you sorted it Andy. Try bridging globes for the power too to test it first. If it works then try solder or get another dash eventually.