I had the dash out of my 79 GT t0 fix the heater control and while in there I changed the regulator for the gauges that was reading slightly different each time. I used a part from Macs; 64-42672. replacement for Ford C9AZ-10804-A . Thought this finally cured the gauge issue. After a month when first starting the fuel and oil gauges slowly move upward then a minute or two just go back to where they are when the key is off. Next start they may work or not, one minute they are up, next look back they are dropping off. Somewhere I read these are poor quality regulators. Who sells decent ones that work? It kinds of unnerving to look at the oil pressure gauge while driving and have the gauge show nothing. The problem has to be that regulator.
I always try to score factory regulators, even if they're not the correct one for Babe's cluster. I think, however, you have an open circuit. Check/clean the two connectors (they look like 9 volt battery connectors) and make sure both sides snap together with a bit of effort. Connecting up easily means the connections are a bit loose.
About those replacement voltage regulators: they are most likely electronic, the original one is mechanical. Maybe your gauges don’t like the constant 5V the new regulator provides and want the pulsing voltage the old one outputs. If your circuit is ok and clean, it may be worth getting a NOS regulator from eBay or something and see if that helps.
The factory part number is C9AZ-10804-A. Green Sales has some older non Ford replacement and they are US made not China ones so having one sent. $35.00 plus shipping. This one from macs didn't last a month and it's a daily driver.
Got my new regulator from Green Sales yesterday. $45.00 with shipping. The box shows made by General Automotive Speciality and looks like it was made back when our cars were new , best thing is, it's Made in USA unlike the chinese one that the restoration parts company sells. Now I just have to find time to put it in.
I don't want to start an endless discussion but I never quite understand this made in China vs US/EU . I understand people's concern when they say this but don't Chinese companies simply make what is ordered? Shouldn't you complain about the websites selling these cheaper restoration parts instead? I'm not from China or anything, just curious...
The companies who order the items made, for mostly profit reasons, cut as many corners as they can get away with. Parts made in Taiwan, Korea and Japan have higher grade materials, but would still have their corners cut.
The foreign regulator from macs lasted about a month and the original Ford one did 41 years. My original ignition switch did close to 40 years, the foreign replacement did 14 months before it crapped out, overheated and almost started the car on fire. In my business the capa certified parts that still don't fit that insurance companies force us to use are better than they were 40 years ago but still not equal quality. The list goes on. And it's not just auto parts. What can you say? Complain to who? You could never get to someone who had any interest in taking care of the problems. Maybe in their country the quality level is good enough.
They make the stuff so cheap that even with a high fallout rate they are still making money. That is why your chain auto parts stores offer "liftime" warranties on cheap parts.
This is a factory unit I liberated from an '80 or '81 Lincoln, same time as I scrounged the clock movement for the dash clock I have for sale. If you look closely, you can see the metal 'tub' has been monkeyed with; that's because the innards were factory-installed in reverse of the ones for the late '70s intermediates, and I reversed it. This is an emergency replacement, in case the current unit fails, so I can secure a new one...especially now that I know Green Sales has a stock of them.
"I don't want to start an endless discussion but I never quite understand this made in China vs US/EU . I understand people's concern when they say this but don't Chinese companies simply make what is ordered? Shouldn't you complain about the websites selling these cheaper restoration parts instead? I'm not from China or anything, just curious... " I ordered a battery tray from Ecklers, made in China. It fit, but was crap quality. I emailed for a return label and they told me just to trash it and issued a refund. They new it was poor quality and did not want it back. I have bought parts due to price over OEM and over half of them have been poor quality. It is quite true that there is good stuff from China as well, or at least good enough, but I have been shorted by quality enough to be wary. Been to a AutoZone lately? Find any good hose clamps or light bulbs there? We allow poor quality by purchasing this stuff without thinking about it. Used to work for a company that would import goods from factories in China. The parts were usually acceptable, but if you got a bad load it was on you, not the factory. Factory got paid while we had to cut prices to move the junk out the door. It is up to us as consumers to vote with our wallets no matter where products come from and they come from everywhere now. We don't need to pick on China, they set themselves up for it but know they can still make money on crap and they are not the only offender. Just the biggest one.
That^^^ I never worked for a vendor who imported from China, nor have I ever bought something so crappy as to require a return of my money. I'm in the unenviable position of not having much money month-to-month (and both Babe and the F150 show it), so in a lot of instances, it's even used over cheap new, but in the cases of new parts (such as water pumps, master cylinders, etc.), I've actually encountered better Chinese quality than I've ever seen in North American remanufactured (especially in the case of an 'A1' company, if you get my drift). We're all just looking to save at the wallet, and if an electric fuel pump unit works well enough for $50-75, we just made our funds go farther vs. a Motorcraft unit @ nearly $400.
I have not been so lucky. Our old roadmaster wagon would only run well on AC Delco parts. Had a fuel pump go out at 140 K and replaced it with a Carter 7 pumps and only 2000 miles later I was getting real tired of dropping fuel tanks that were full! bought the AC Delco and that is the pump that is still in the car today at 325K miles! water pumps and distributors same thing. the AC Delco units I would get 100K out of them the aftermarket ones barley 5K and the pumps were leaking and and the distributors would fail too in short order. I have had way better luck with used parts over cheap new stuff.
Having been burnt often enough will make you reject anything, and I do mean anything made in China. While they may have the part dimensions down pat, substitution of inferior rubber, plastic, and metals by their factories guarantees a shorter lifespan of the parts they produce and often sell at comparable prices to genuine OEM sourced parts. Do you really trust something like inferior bearings in parts you are trusting your life on ? Not counting the aggravation of having to replace a defective part multiple times even if the parts house keeps handing you another identical crap part to replace the bad one you just installed. My time is worth money, I don't get reimbursed for the time wasted replacing junk over and over. Customer get's mad, I get mad too. Mad enough to hunt for an OEM parts source or even go so far as to buy an identical vehicle to rob real parts from. The vendor who sources parts from China already knows that China put in the lowest bid, I blame the vendors for not checking to see if their quality constraints were actually followed.
I agree with Hillbilly in that the part may outwardly appear right, but the devil is in the details & materials. And especially QC on the China end. I've had pretty good luck sticking with chain store parts, but I always ask for the premium part rather than the low cost version. I build and modify guitars also, and there are HUGE differences in production & QC of parts. As one example, here's a shot of two different tremolos for a Fender Stratocaster, one a Fender part and one a Chinese knockoff; can you guess which is which? Technically, both would fit, but I'm not a starving musician, so I opt for the better part.
This is how I feel about it, too. If QA is good, the part should be good as well, regardless of where it was manufactured. But I guess good QA costs money, money that a vendor would rather pocket than spend. For easily accessible parts I don't mind trying aftermarket stuff that says it's OEM specs: if it doesn't fit properly or stops working sooner than expected without killing me or my Ranchero, it shouldn't be too hard to replace it with a NOS or used part. My time is not worth anything so I don't mind doing the work twice, although I hate it when that happens.
