Well, help again guys! i have my gas guage wired up and i fixed the problems of having it wired in reverse and then having the sender unit not grounded!!! Although the tank is about 3/4 full, the guage reads about 1/16. the paint is so good that the instrument housing is not grounded. I tried using a wire to the back of the housing and running the multimeter to ground to check the circuit. No luck, the housing is not grounded. in a previous thread, a copy of the 55 manual was added and the info that the guage housing needed to be grounded was discussed. Is there an easy way to establish the needed ground for the gauge? Is there anyway to escape having to scratch paint off the housing? thanks, put-puy
Tank Ground Is the float grounded at the tank location? One wire should run from the float bolt down plate to a cab/frame ground. It doesn't seem to me that the guage it's self should have to be grounded... Keep in mind that my thoughts are coming from electrical and electronics experiance and not from a knowledge of the truck it's self. Guages don't always depend on the ground from the guage/frame it's self. TB'sD
I have grounded the sender unit. Initially, it was not grounded due to the really good paint job done on the tank.
Grounding The Gauge head Yes , drop the gauge head out and find a small screw on the back of it and use that , a brass or stainless screw will ensure it stays grounded for years to come... Consider using a two wire sub harness from the tank to the gauge to ensure accuracy , it can be very small gauge wires as it only works on milliamps . You shouldn't need to scrape any paint if you run a tap in all the threaded holes and use star typ lock washers...
Thanks nate! i have a go at it. it will take me a while with all the other projects i have, but i'll get back to you. I don't think i can pull the guage head without removing the whole guage set from the dash. Your thought?
Gauge Service I always pull the gauge heads as a unit , I know it's a PIA what with the oil Bourdon Tube and all but simply wadd up a clean rag to catch any drips . Every Time I work on one of these old trucks gauges , I replace the gauge to dash hardware as it's always corroded and the ground path is ever so important to both fuel gauge accuracy and illumination at night . poor grounding will also cause speedo cable failure in some trucks . Keep us posted , this is all very simple but time consuming work , plus of course , no fun jambing my fat self between the seat and door post/dash , whilst upside down....
Nate, yea, i'm getting good at the upside down, rotate on your right side, reach up and forward routine. thanks again for the help!!
