The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay fuel gage problem #14256

OK, my buddy has a panel that was previsously swapped to 12v, they changed nothing but the gen (to a 10SI alt), all the bulbs were blown(6v), of course the fuel gage does not work. He bought a 6 to 12 converter @NAPA, but is it likely the gage is already fried?

Brian,

Some folks say it makes no diff on the 6v to 12v swap with the fuel gauge...some folks say it's instant death. There are lots of posts outlining the test procedure for gauge and sender. If you search and find them, have your buddy run these little tests and he can probably verify the health of the gauge.

His purchase at NAPA should have been for a small resistor device to knock the 12 volts down to 6 volts for the gauge or any other device he was keeping at the original voltage. If he installed this dropping resistor after the fact, it might be too late if the gauge did indeed go to the happy hunting ground.

Stuart

chances are he already fried the gauge. most of your gauges use voltage regulators that work similar to a flasher circut, it provides intermintent power to circut. he can go to the h.a.m.b. website and find a tech article on retrofitting his gauges. if your a AD truck owner it's a must read. he can also use a zener diode to drop the voltage. diodes work but with zener diodes if voltage input drops output stays constant,diode output drops if input drops (voltage)

10 micron,

I don't think a AD owner would find any 'flasher circuit' voltage regulator on any of his gauges. I have seen this device mentioned before in this forum, but it didn't pertain to the rigs usually talked about on this site.

Stuart

hello! are you saying that nobody on this site has a truck converted to 12 volts? by chance that their is this imformation would certainly apply don't you agree? the reference to "similar to a flasher circut" was to simplify the irv's operation in regulating the voltage to the gauges.sorry that you didn't understand the post and had a momentary case of confusion. stay cool.

I just replaced my 6V gauge with a 12v gauge because the guy that had the truck before me did the same thing, just installed the alternator and the resisistor at the coil. One side of the old gauge coils was fried black, the other side was black in the center. not to mention one of the leads was burnt open.

10 micron,

Sometimes my confusion isn't momentary, but I'll try to say cool...thanks. :confused:

Stuart

for anyone with gauge issues in a 47-53 truck check out the tech article on the h.a.m.b website. the new 12 volt fuel gauges are $60 bucks by the time they hit my doorstep and the update is around $20 bucks or less. i enjoy the do-it-yourself part and i would rather apply my bucks to nice interior. just my 2 cents on this. stay cool!

The the regulators that supply intermittant power to the gauges are not used on GM gauges, either six or twelve volt. Most European cars used that system, as did some domestics; but not GM. The voltage dropping device for a GM product being converted to 12 volts has to supply continuous current.