First off, Hi. This is my first post here. My first car ever was an '81 720 pickup and now 20 years later I own an '83. I remember it as a great little truck and hope this one treats me the same. I just bought it and noticed that the Gas & Temp gauges arent working correctly.Resistance to the sending unit is correct so I think the gauge itself is probably bad? My question - Is there any aftermarket gauges that arent crazy expensive that I can switch to? I'm assuming I have to replace the Temp gauge as well since they run on the circuit? Any info would be great since I am flat broke and cant afford a stock replacement gauge set.

I guess I asked a question no one wants to anwser? Haha. Oh well.

Any after market gauge would be more expensive than purchasing a used instrument panel. Check our moderator, he has an instrument panel for sale (Peiz part out on this site).

I had that problem a while back. It turned out to be as simple as unplugging and plugging the harness on the back of the inst. panel about a dozen times.

Thanks guys! I'll try to find if the dash is still for sale from him but in the meantime I guess I'll keep monkeying with the resistors. Thanks

This seems to be a fairly common problem with these trucks. I read one reference to it possibly being a failure of the voltage regulator that is part of the fuel gauge. I'm chasing this problem right now as well.