Rusty Driver
Posts: 130
Joined: Fri May 30, 2014 7:49 am
L110 Gauges
All gauges either wouldn't work by reading wrong or the needle jumped erratically, even after cleaning all metal surfaces that were being used as ground. Using a Fluke meter they would all show constant wild swings in resistance. I ended up using a post of the Ammeter( that I am not using) as a ground point and hard wiring all gauges with clean mounting screws and star washers to that ground point. This solved the inaccurate readings.
Same problems with the two gauge lamp sockets( too rusty to clean, I replaced them with Ron Francis units ( P/N: PL-01), that have the ground hard wired so the can be attached with a screw with a star washer to clean metal that is attached to the grounding stud.
The gas sending units....The Bob Drake unit that I purchased ( p/n: 99A-9275) is 108 ohms empty and 14.4 ohms full. That pegs the gas gauge on full( sticking the needle) and empty still shows a quarter of a tank of fuel. The second unnamed unit that I got from me brother is 244 ohms empty and 31.3 ohms full. That is perfect on empty but only shows as a 3/4 full indication at the full swing of the arm in the tank full position. I'm in the process of digging my original unit out of my storage to see if anything is still usable on it......this is still not resolved.
Areas where my good intentions screwed up the gauges that I was working on:
While trying to remove the rusty nuts off one gas gauge power stud i sprayed PB Blaster on it to let it soak over night, the next day as soon as I tried to remove the nut, the stud twisted off from the cardboard like material the stud is crimped on. Do not use penetrating oil! More scrap metal....
While painting the needles red I used a old business card under the needle to mask the face of the gauge, this worked well until I lifted the card too quickly removing it on one gauge unattaching the very delicate connection between the needle and the inside workings....more scrap metal
After completing all wiring I will be soldering all connections and add dielectric grease.
Painfully slow, but steady progress....