The Stovebolt Site Forums Welcome! Welcome Centre Do It Yourself (DITY) Gallery 1946 Chevy 1/2Ton in Utah - "Here We Go"

Well, I believe my fuel gauge is toast.🙁 Dang it! I did lots of testing today - fuel gauge, fuel sending unit, alternator, excite wire,...

1) Fuel Gauge - My gauge wasn't working and I've seen conflicting instructions on how to wire it. At first, the needle would move a little to the left when I turn the key ON. (I have about 3-4 gallons of gas in the tank). So thinking it might be reversed wired, I swap the connections and the fuse blew when turning the key ON. If I disconnected the gauge, the fuse would hold. Wired to either terminal, fuse would blow.

2) Sending Unit - I removed sending unit for testing. Moving the float arm up and down causes different ohm resistance up to 30+ ohms. So I believe the sender is OK. I also verified continuity on the wire from the sending unit to the dash and it is good. Grounding wire is good also.

3) Current alternator (23 years old, but new) was charging the battery at 15.5 - 16.2 volts. Not sure why? I took it Autozone today and it bench tested Good. I bought the same Duralast DL7127M alternator (it was in stock) to test. I installed it and it was charging at 15.3 volts. I'm thinking that's still too high?

4) Excite Wire - I tried to test for continuity, but no luck. Does the diode in the line prevent continuity testing? I did connect 12 volts to it under the dash, but got up and down voltage readings next to the alternator? I'm not positive how the excite wire works, but I believe it's supposed to tell the alternator to start charging.

Truck does start up and run, so I'm happy about that. I just need to figure these little gremlins one at a time. I'll start looking for some replace gauges, maybe even buy a new dash the has a 12 volt fuel gauge and 0-60 pounds on the oil pressure.

Forgot about the Temp gauge not working, but if I replace the cluster, it doesn't matter right now. I'll keep treading water! I appreciate everyone's help - ALWAYS!