Buss Bar?

I have a Frankenstein unit, registered as 1981 K1500 however, I find new surprises every time I try to fix or improve something. Currently I have her in parts and no garage. I am trying to be back up and running before winter hits. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I will add photos after work today. Only owned for one year. Just getting into things slowly. .... well that was the plan till one thing leads to next thing and here we are, it all started with taking box off to fix some rust.........

So here's the quick short story, New rear wiring = all lights, sending units, selector unit and reverse switch. Followed wires and installed cleanly.
When in the fuse panel seen cut wires taped off = Interior lights and smoke lighter so I removed them and cleaned up any bad connections.
All new dash lights tested before put in cluster, fuel gage did work before, truck is firing no problems with fuel wires
Now my fuel gage doesn't work at all ....well nothing in my dash is working any ideas? the buss bar was removed it wasn't connected to anything but cut bits.

Do I have to install the buss bar to get my dash to work, can I bypass it somehow, or am I missing something completely different?

Your first post I see! Welcome, I've been through Vernon a few times, not too far from where I am up in West Concord. Not sure how different the years of trucks are, but I have a 1976 GMC truck I have been using for parts. Unsure if anything from there would be of help on your 81..?? I should be careful though about offering up my parts truck as I am not quite done yet with my own project

Post up some pictures if you could, that would certainly help get your issues resolved.

Check your ground on the upper left kick-panel.Do you have a DMM?

Welcome from Ohio.

Welcome to the forum from N. Texas!



If all those things are no longer working, perhaps the bus bar is for all the grounds for the various circuits?

When I got home got right back at it. I removed everything from its home and started trying different things wiggle this, change that light and here is what I found.

The light with ground wire from ashtray area must be plugged in to top fuel gage light location ( top right of gage cluster )
The dimmer switch needed to be cleaned and (played with) seemed sticky/glitchy
Ta Da gage cluster works .....no signal lights .....but flasher is trying, so good.....
Place hand behind flasher and wiggle ....TA DA so I am thinking the fuse panel and or bulkhead connector need repair or rebuild to secure wires, I am learning as I go and keeping this unit stupid simple lol no bells and whistles just enough to enjoy the drive. If its not needed to drive I do not want it.

Here are some photos of what I have now, should have seen what I started with.

Thoughts or suggestions?

Oh and of course I was going to bleed the breaks today, ya that turned into a thing bleeder broke right off.....everything is a thing with my beast. But I love it

Thank you guys I have been coming here to learn from you all for some time now. Just signed up today, getting in deep now lol. THANK YOU ALL I could not do it with out you! This has been the most helpful source of info through out this "preserving" project.

THANK you Thank you THANK YOU.

Have you checked condition of your printed circuit on backside of the white(ish) plastic gauge/cluster housing? I had a fuel gauge I thought had died as I had to reach behind it and wiggle things before it came back to life. Turns out the old printed circuit was the problem.

Kristal said:

Thank you guys I have been coming here to learn from you all for some time now. Just signed up today, getting in deep now lol. THANK YOU ALL I could not do it with out you! This has been the most helpful source of info through out this "preserving" project.

THANK you Thank you THANK YOU.

Click to expand...

Here is another thread, with awesome wiring diagrams that I have used over, and over, and over....and over Scroll down & there are the '81 to '87 diagrams too. These were a huge help when tracing wires & fixing many years of other peoples messes on my truck.

also whats with the mini fuse?
Note, not all my fuse spots there were populated since I pulled fuses for things not being used since I wanted to limit the possibility for shorts since my wiring has..... less than ideal routing in places.

I forgotwhat all the wires that clip into the fuse block do, but you may be needing some of them since they look like they are power circuits, the one even says LPS with an arrow on my block there