ArtistsRifles Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 As part of the rebuild on 55 FM 58 I decided to fix the non-working fuel gauge. On first inspection the connection from the fuel tap to the drivers tank had been removed by the low-lifes and, when I took the dash off, the green feed wire to the gauge was missing, only the green& black wire to the fuel tap was connected. - I found the missing green wire and plugged it into the fuel gauge. Now when I turn the key the gauge registers by flicking up to "E". BUT - when I lift the sender in the tank simulating a full of fuel the needle tries to move downwards??? I checked the feed from the green wire and it showed a steady 23.5 volts. I tried reversing the connections on the fuel gauge but it stitll did the same thing. Never seen this before, anyone got any ideas why and how to fix it at all??? Secondly the water temp and oil temp gauges - are these capillary units or electrical?? Neither of mine work and when I checked them today instead of the spade terminals I was expecting to see there were round, what appear to be screw-off, connectors with fairly stiff "cable" coming out the back of them - both of which on mine have been cut off just the other side of the bulkhead in the engine bay..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike65 Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 Secondly the water temp and oil temp gauges - are these capillary units or electrical?? Neither of mine work and when I checked them today instead of the spade terminals I was expecting to see there were round, what appear to be screw-off, connectors with fairly stiff "cable" coming out the back of them - both of which on mine have been cut off just the other side of the bulkhead in the engine bay..... Neil They would sound like capillary ones to me. Mine has electrical ones and they are just wires like the fuel guage. Can you remember what you had when you swapped the motor over? What have you got on the engine. Capillary or electric senders? Did they work before? If so you may have found another change. Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
welshbayonetww2 Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 Neil They would sound like capillary ones to me. Mine has electrical ones and they are just wires like the fuel guage. Can you remember what you had when you swapped the motor over? What have you got on the engine. Capillary or electric senders? Did they work before? If so you may have found another change. Mike 24V series 3 are normally capillary for oil and water temp . Doug Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airportable Posted January 15, 2012 Share Posted January 15, 2012 Both my AirPortables 79-12v and 80-24v are electrical. Not a expert but told the stablization unit on the back of the gauge, if faulty can cause the gauges to do all sorts of funny things. Just a thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArtistsRifles Posted January 16, 2012 Author Share Posted January 16, 2012 Both the water and oil temp gauges are indeed capillary - took the instrument housing out today to see if I could locate a voltage stabiliser - and was then told by someone else the early Series 3's 24v's never had them... This is the rear of the unit: As you can see - no voltage stabiliser but two capillary temp gauges! I also tried making a more positive earth on the sender by taking a lead between one of the sender screws and the -ve on the batteries. - this made no difference to the gauge action. Neither did connecting the sender direct to the gauge, by-passing the switch blocks on the change over tap... So if anyone has some better ideas on how to get the gauge working I'm all ears!! When I removed the gauge I noticed the needle flopped from E to F and back as the gauge was rotated by hand - I thought at first the gauge might be stuffed but others have told me they do do that! So bang went that idea! I hate auto-electrics!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
01ec28 Posted January 16, 2012 Share Posted January 16, 2012 Did it ever work since you've had it? If not, just wondering if since a wire was already disconnected, could a previous owner have used a 11a positive earth gauge? I,m not sure if it would react like that. Does the other tank sender behave the same? Drew Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ArtistsRifles Posted January 16, 2012 Author Share Posted January 16, 2012 No, its never worked since I had it so I took the opportunity to get it in operation. The part number on the gauge (FG6269/01 24v) matches what is in the Series 3 ISPL. Both senders get the same reaction from the gauge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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