As much as it grieves me to have to say this, the ICVRs available at auto parts stores and dealerships have become so shoddy, they are not worth wasting your time and money on. It is, from my experience, and the experience of others, far more likely that the unit will fail immediately than that it will function like it is supposed to, and, if it does actually work straight out of the box, that state will not continue for long. I'm hearing the same thing about the Motorcraft and the BWD, the Mustang-specific units made by whoever, which are sold by the vendors of vintage Mustang parts, do not fare any better as far as I can tell.
If a person were to take the time to read through my blog, they will notice something. First, there are no ads here, and there never will be. I do not want a nickel from anyone. I do this because I love the cars, and if I can help in some small way to keep these cars chugging down the road, I am happy to do that. You will also notice that I do not recommend manufacturers or retail outlets for parts, and, the reason for this is simple. I will not do anything that will, in any way, damage my credibility. But, the ICVR situation has become so bad, I have to say something. There is a nice man in Florida that makes electronic ICVRs. He contacted me a few years ago, offered to send me a couple for free to check out and possibly recommend, and I declined for the reasons that I have just stated. I now realize that this was a mistake on my part. I still haven't tried one personally, but, I have heard from several people that have used them, and this unit works. It is reliable, durable, and does exactly what it is supposed to. Here is a link to his ebay store.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/281691350846
If I needed an ICVR, this is what I would buy.
A quick update. A friend of mine bought few of these regulators and tried to blow one up. He couldn't do it without running power straight from the battery with a 10 gauge wire and grounding both the ground and the output terminal straight to the body of the car. He gave me one and I also tried to blow it up, and was unsuccessful. This is a remarkably durable component.
I will second this endorsement!
ReplyDeleteI bought a couple IVR's from this gentleman- a couple years back, they still work perfectly.
I also built my own solid state IVR. It was cheaper to buy it from him all ready pre built.
Plus, you can "dial in" the exact voltage you want to use- as 5 volts to the gauges in these cars is not always going to give you the accuracy of the readings, due to the age of the sending units sometimes.
Excellent recommendation!
Hi,
ReplyDeleteCan somebody explain how exactly to test how much voltage is coming through this type of IVR? Key on, ground one side of the voltmeter and test both wires while they are connected to the instrument panel? Is this right? On the on wire I got around .04v and the other was around .60v. I am not sure I am testing this correctly. I bought a painless wire harness and I still don't have working temp gauge and fuel gauge.
Well i checked again and this time I had 12v coming in and 5.08 going out. I turned it up just a little bit and then put heat to the temp sender unit. Seems to be working. Finally!
ReplyDeleteSo don't hesitate in buying one of these IVR's.
And those are exactly the readings that you should be getting. I haven't heard of anyone that has had a problem with one of these regulators that turned out to be a problem with the regulator itself. If the unit gets about 12V coming in,and is properly grounded, it have something between 5V and 6V going out.
ReplyDeleteI just checked the gentleman's ebay store site. He has pulled the listing because the the ICVR is no longer available.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear that. That was an excellent product. Here is a link to a site that shows you how to make your own if you're ok with going to an electronics store to buy the components and breaking out the ol' soldering iron.
ReplyDeletehttp://chris66dad.tripod.com/id29.html