Hello all! Saturday was a beautiful day in the Rochester area so I went to my local pick-a-part junkyard, to cross some items I needed off my list. the main one being a new gauge cluster and or a new set of good air core motors. When I arrived the lot was filled with TONS of GMT400s I went bananas. The 96 to 98 GMT cupholders that have the second cup holder that swings out was broken since I bought the truck back in August, found a pristine one at the yead, and got it for $5! I also found the switches for the cargo light, which I will be hooking up to my light bar, and the rear hatch (from a suburban), which is a momentary switch, good for my air horn switch. Once all these are hooked up, the accessories I have added will have matching switches and look clean. Bough 2 the switches and the backing plate for $8. 2 headlight bezzles for $3 apiece. I also purchased some things for my XJ Cherokee while I was there. Door lock and actuator for $9 and a center console hinge and clip for $5.
Now onto the best part! We all know that the gauges suck in these trucks when they get old they get twitchy, flop around like crazy, and sometimes just spin in circles. There were about 30 GMT400 or more from 96 to 98. I pulled maybe 6 or 7 clusters out of the trucks pulled the glass and was feeling for the best motors. The best motors are stiff when you push the needle gently, and they should return back to their original position, really good ones can take a while (5-8 seconds) to move back to their original position. I was able to find 1 gauge cluster with all perfect motors as well as 8 motors that were perfect on top of the cluster so I went home with a total of 14 perfect air core motors.
3-Temp
3-Fuel
3-Voltage
2-Oil pressure
2-Speedo
1-Tach
I also took another get of needles that weren't sun-faded and still bright orange
Gauge cluster 25 dollars
So all in all, I spent a little over $60 after tax on all these items. To be honest I don't think the cashier billed me for the air core motors because he didn't know what to put it down as. And I didn't even know this until I was back at home looking over the receipt.
If you are having gauge issues there are some fixes like injecting the motor with silicon oil to dampen the gauge, but I think the best result would be to swap it out with a motor that is still in perfect condition. Check your local junkyard or pick-a-part because the replacement motors on eBay and elsewhere go for extremely high prices ranging from $30 to $110 depending on the type of gauge, fuel, tach/speedo, oil pressure, etc.
Happy Hunting
Now onto the best part! We all know that the gauges suck in these trucks when they get old they get twitchy, flop around like crazy, and sometimes just spin in circles. There were about 30 GMT400 or more from 96 to 98. I pulled maybe 6 or 7 clusters out of the trucks pulled the glass and was feeling for the best motors. The best motors are stiff when you push the needle gently, and they should return back to their original position, really good ones can take a while (5-8 seconds) to move back to their original position. I was able to find 1 gauge cluster with all perfect motors as well as 8 motors that were perfect on top of the cluster so I went home with a total of 14 perfect air core motors.
3-Temp
3-Fuel
3-Voltage
2-Oil pressure
2-Speedo
1-Tach
I also took another get of needles that weren't sun-faded and still bright orange
Gauge cluster 25 dollars
So all in all, I spent a little over $60 after tax on all these items. To be honest I don't think the cashier billed me for the air core motors because he didn't know what to put it down as. And I didn't even know this until I was back at home looking over the receipt.
If you are having gauge issues there are some fixes like injecting the motor with silicon oil to dampen the gauge, but I think the best result would be to swap it out with a motor that is still in perfect condition. Check your local junkyard or pick-a-part because the replacement motors on eBay and elsewhere go for extremely high prices ranging from $30 to $110 depending on the type of gauge, fuel, tach/speedo, oil pressure, etc.
Happy Hunting
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