Conn47D24 Posted November 21, 2020 Report Share Posted November 21, 2020 Help please with another assembly question. I have rebuilt the cluster. Some new gauges, paint, new glass. I replaced the two fish paper " cups" as I found them. Parts book calls for three of these insulators on Amp and Fuel gauges. Where am I missing one, and are these in correct locations? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eneto-55 Posted November 21, 2020 Report Share Posted November 21, 2020 (edited) 42 minutes ago, Conn47D24 said: Help please with another assembly question. I have rebuilt the cluster. Some new gauges, paint, new glass. I replaced the two fish paper " cups" as I found them. Parts book calls for three of these insulators on Amp and Fuel gauges. Where am I missing one, and are these in correct locations? My 46 Plymouth didn't have those at all, and I didn't know about them, either. What could the purpose be for them? Are they made of something like gasket material? Edited November 21, 2020 by Eneto-55 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conn47D24 Posted November 21, 2020 Author Report Share Posted November 21, 2020 Yes, paper molded cups. Insulators of sort. Not sure what they insulate. Odd little bits for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
'41 Fat Bottom Girl Posted November 23, 2020 Report Share Posted November 23, 2020 When I rebuilt my cluster on the '41 this summer, I was scratching my head about those little paper cups. They didn't seem to act like spacers, there is no screw interference inside that would suggest they are spacers. They don't insulate the screws from ground, the screws go into the cluster body anyway. I don't think they would be there to shield an adjacent terminal post from a wire accidentally grounding out during installation in the car. Those early auto engineers were an incredibly smart bunch, so I am sure those little paper cups had some purpose- but it sure escapes me. I remade paper gaskets under the gauges like you did to keep the gauge backs light-tight. I did find a pic of an earlier year similar cluster (late 1930's?), and it had the 3 cups too... I attached a pic of the earlier cluster which shows the cups in the original positions, if that helps you for location. Me? I just put two of them back on the ammeter anyway (because I lost one). But I can't see why everything wouldn't work just fine without them. By the way, I rebuilt mine to refresh the white paint that had flaked off the inside of the cluster body, as the gauges were really dim at night- even after I gave the cluster a better ground with toothed washers under the two cluster mounting screws. That brought my voltage to the bulbs from 5V to 6V, which helped a bit. Troubleshooting, I had found some voltage loss because of a poor ground. But still pretty dim. The best thing I did aside from repainting the inside with a bright white, was to replace the old 6 volt bulbs with brighter LED bulbs. Got them through superbrightleds.com. For the cluster I used their part "BA9S-W4-32-6VAC Cool White 32 Degree 6V". This made a nice difference over the original filament bulb and the LED bayonet base fits into the original sockets. I also bought one of their Blue 32 Degree 6V LED bulbs (part number BA9S-B4-32-6VAC) for my hi-beam indicator lamp at the top of the speedo and I like that too! You might want to try those- I really like them. These LEDs are not polarity sensitive, either. They work fine if you have the original positive ground system on your car, or if you have converted to a negative ground system like I have when I did a total rewire on my car. My car isn't a purist restoration by any means. So, being impressed with those LEDs, I then ordered a couple of amber colored LEDs for my front running lights (they were stock white) and they look great (Amber is part number BA9S-A4-32-6VAC)...and two more of the white LED bulbs- for my license plate light, and for the interior light that I had added. (BTW, they also make them in Green if you find a need!) Good luck, Here's the pic. If you ever find out the purpose of those cups, I sure would like to know! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Elder Posted November 23, 2020 Report Share Posted November 23, 2020 On 11/21/2020 at 1:27 PM, Conn47D24 said: Help please with another assembly question. I have rebuilt the cluster. Some new gauges, paint, new glass. I replaced the two fish paper " cups" as I found them. Parts book calls for three of these insulators on Amp and Fuel gauges. Where am I missing one, and are these in correct locations? The stud on the far right.......are you going to go to all this effort on your restoration just to place a totally rusted nut on that......? Yes, I am calling you out on this. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conn47D24 Posted November 23, 2020 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2020 Lol Frank good call. Bugged the hell out of me too. This morning I went digging through a bucket of hardware and found the matching special nut ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conn47D24 Posted November 23, 2020 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2020 (edited) 41, good post, and thanks for the photo. Would be nice to find out what these cups are for. I've got LED bulbs in the dash sockets. I may try the blue high beam too! Edited November 23, 2020 by Conn47D24 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vintage6t Posted November 23, 2020 Report Share Posted November 23, 2020 Just a WAG but maybe they act as stand-offs of sorts to help keep the wiring in that area from chafing on the screw heads. Also could be some sort of assembly aid to hold the screw in some sort of driver or automatic feed. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank Elder Posted November 23, 2020 Report Share Posted November 23, 2020 1 hour ago, Conn47D24 said: Lol Frank good call. Bugged the hell out of me too. This morning I went digging through a bucket of hardware and found the matching special nut ! Coool! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Hiebert Posted November 23, 2020 Report Share Posted November 23, 2020 When I rebuilt the gauge cluster on our D24 about 20 years ago, it no longer had those paper cups, they had turned into paper washers, so I didn't know that they were even there in the first place, and I finished it without them. The message being I've had no issues without them. I'd only be guessing at what the paper cups were intended for, but would be interested to know if someone figures it out. With that info, perhaps I'll be compelled to install replacements. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Conn47D24 Posted November 24, 2020 Author Report Share Posted November 24, 2020 How's this Frank ? ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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