MrMoparCHP
Old Man with a Hat
The other day my friend comes by and we meter out everything under the hood to confirm it is good before we try to fire up the car for the first time with the key, till now it was just hotwired.
After a couple false starts we tried and it just died, didn't take long to realize there was no gas in the tank, we had been running off a jug at the back of the stub frame. When I put the tank in I put the gallon or so of gas I had in the tank, we must have run through that. A quick break and back at it with 5 gallons in the tank, notice gas gauge works, 1/4 tank!
Fire it up and run it, check charging, do some tweaking, check temp, wait, no temp, no gas. After we ran it for a little while more we shut it down and start looking into the fuel gauge figuring it died. After some checking in the rear and at the kick we concluded it was probably a bad fuel gauge.
My friend leaves and I proceed to pull the cluster. I swap the gauge with another I had and put the cluster back in and hook the battery back up. As soon as I turn the key on I get sparks from under the dash, I turn the key off and disconnect the battery. A quick look inside and see no sign of fire I step away and take a break. Flashlight in hand i start looking through the switch panel and radio openings and see nothing obvious, stick my head up from the bottom, nothing.
So i pull the cluster figuring I'd have a better look with it out, soon as I pulled it out enough to disconnect the wires I saw the problem...
After looking over the wiring diagrams I speculate I had a dead short in the 2nd fuel gauge. I have several more boards and a couple more gauges so I should be good to go. I did inspect the harness under the dash and didn't see any problems. The plan is to replace the gauge and board and try again.
Alan
After a couple false starts we tried and it just died, didn't take long to realize there was no gas in the tank, we had been running off a jug at the back of the stub frame. When I put the tank in I put the gallon or so of gas I had in the tank, we must have run through that. A quick break and back at it with 5 gallons in the tank, notice gas gauge works, 1/4 tank!
Fire it up and run it, check charging, do some tweaking, check temp, wait, no temp, no gas. After we ran it for a little while more we shut it down and start looking into the fuel gauge figuring it died. After some checking in the rear and at the kick we concluded it was probably a bad fuel gauge.
My friend leaves and I proceed to pull the cluster. I swap the gauge with another I had and put the cluster back in and hook the battery back up. As soon as I turn the key on I get sparks from under the dash, I turn the key off and disconnect the battery. A quick look inside and see no sign of fire I step away and take a break. Flashlight in hand i start looking through the switch panel and radio openings and see nothing obvious, stick my head up from the bottom, nothing.
So i pull the cluster figuring I'd have a better look with it out, soon as I pulled it out enough to disconnect the wires I saw the problem...
After looking over the wiring diagrams I speculate I had a dead short in the 2nd fuel gauge. I have several more boards and a couple more gauges so I should be good to go. I did inspect the harness under the dash and didn't see any problems. The plan is to replace the gauge and board and try again.
Alan
