The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay 1949 Fuel Gauge Installation

Question, installing rebuilt fuel gauge. Is there supposed to be an insulator to prevent the exposed copper on the back of the gauge from contacting the inside of the housing? Or, is the exposed copper part of the ground system and is supposed to contact the housing?

I'll try to add some pics.

That insulating piece on the terminals had a vertical section on the originals. That helps prevent the gauge from going "poof" if someone messes around while the wires are hot, or even just a random short between the terminals. Here''s a photo of that insulator. It would be pretty easy to fabricate a replacement from some card stock (gasket material?)
Of course, the terminals need to be insulated from the cluster housing as well. It won't work very well if they're shorted together thru the cluster. Reminds me that I should go check mine before I install it.

I’m pretty sure
But now you got me questioning myself
The brass between the posts is the ground which is required for the indicator to work
The insulator pad goes on the outside to isolate the posts from the gauge cluster

I found a photo of testing my gauge and it appears I have ground (silver wire) clipped to the brass on the back of the indicator yes
-s

Don't question yourself. It's only the terminals that need to be isolated from ground.

I remember the studs going straight in, nothing on inside. Everything else was on outside where it connects.
Here are two pics I took.
But it was awhile ago.
Todd

For what it may be worth I always paint (red, naturally) a small area above the hot terminal. When the red tag falls off (and it will do that years down the road) you or whomever has the truck then won't have any question about it.

I'm recalling that the holes for the terminals are larger than the terminals so they don't touch the housing. There must be some way to locate the gauge to center the terminals in the holes, but I don't recall. Like you Todd, it was a while ago that I did mine. I don't recall any insulating thing between the ammeter terminals. It wouldn't matter if they were shorted together - no damage, just the amp gauge wouldn't work.