'88 fuel and temp guage not working.

[fantacmet]

1988 Sentra 2 door sedan. Temp and gas guage not working. Any idea's?

I checked all fuses, good.
I checked relays, good.

This is the only thing on the car that does not work. Even the A/C works. The only things I need to fix are the passenger side outer tie rod end, and the drivers door pull handle(it's all ripped up), everything else is A-OK! I paid 700 bucks for this car. I've got a long trip coming up soon and I would like these guages working, especially the fuel guage. Since it's both fuel and temp, and they are right on top of each other, the problem has to be related. Both needles are always at the bottom. When the car heats up the temp guages reads nothing. When the tank is full the fuel guage reads nothing.

Speaking of which what size tank do these cars have in them? I get 30-32 MPG, this will at least let me know how many miles I can go on a tank, but I would really like these guages working, since I have mountains to drive through.

[Mervic]

You need to replace the voltage regulator. It is located behind the instrument cluster. If you can remove it, you will see it is silver in color and might have some wires sticking out or just a silver piece that has some connectors. Not expensive fix. You can even try to go to the junkyard and pull a few extras. I bought mine brand new for $50 CDN from dealership.

[fantacmet]

You know it's funny, I kinda wondered if that little bugger was the issue. I went to the junkyard, and not a single one with the right one on it. I found one from a bit newer, I had to modify it to get it to fit, and it worked. Evidently though, the thing didn't have enough heat shielding or it was bad too, so it only worked when the heater/defroster was off, otherwise it would heat up and quit working. Now it has quit working altogether once again, but now that I know what the problem is......... I may just pickup a whole gauge cluster out of a year newer or something. Will have to see what the future holds in store.

[Mervic]

I would just buy one from the dealership. I bought from the dealership and took a few more from the junkyard. I installed the new regulator and not replaced it since then.