by Seth G Thu May 18, 2017 7:33 pm
Cool van. I don't know the wiring in the 2nd gen vans but it's probably pretty simple. Is nothing working? Like dead short or is it just the gauges? It's probably the run terminal on the ign switch they are hooked to. Which likely feeds the gauges. What gauges are in the cluster? The way that the fuel/oil/temp gauges work is by feeding one side of the the gauge 12v+(I'm assuming 2nd gen gauges are 12v, 1st gen vans had a step down transformer/v regulator and 6v gauges) and the other side of the gauge is connected to the sending unit which is basically a variable resistor to ground. The amount of resistance determines the position of the needle. And each gauge type and it's sending unit are calibrated to work together. A melted wired indicates a short through rubbing into something that is grounded or an overload of some sort. If you have ammeter in the cluster it may be the source of your problems if it is wired inline and the wire was undersized oem or old and creating resistance(heat).
There used to be a 2nd gen econoline forum that could probably be more help. A quick search yielded:
http://www.secondgeneconolines.net/But that isn't the one I was thinking of.
