Fluctuating Gauges

You may have only checked the ground at the gauge itself.  Also check the other end, where it attaches to the frame or engine block (preferably the frame).  You said you just started putting on miles, so you may have corrosion at the frame attachment point.

check the points gap (aka) the dwell angle, My car had a tach doing the similar thing. Turned out to be the points gap was to close

Might be a ground, but since the gauges are driven by a ground signal, I would, in turn, look at the +12V feed to the gauge cluster.  Follow it back from the gauges and clean each attach point all the way to the fuse panel, then keep on going and clean the wire feeding the fuse panel.  If you have those silly, VW-style torpedo fuses, shine up the metal ends on them as well as the clips that hold them in.

 

let us know if that makes any difference.  Since you recently had the gauges rebuilt with new innards, I doubt that's the cause so let's look elsewhere.

 

 

 

I hope diagnosing my fuel gauge problem is less complicated than rpeter's multiple erratic gauges!

 

The needle used to slowly nudged it way toward empty before dropping kike a stone. Now it constantly reads full.  I've checked the connections between sender to gauge and they're tight & clean....

What do I look for now?  

try a little 600 grit sand paper

 

Run a new separate ground wire from the senders base to a clean solid know ground - even the battery negative terminal would work.  As Bill pointed out it needs to be shiny clean. If gauge works then you have a bad ground. If old type VW resistive wire sender - it could have the wire broken.

 

Here's VW site for testing the sender.

 

http://www.midsouthvw.com/Tech...ch_tip_FuelGauge.htm

 

I have finally found some time to work on my car. I think the problem is no current to the circuit. I hope when that issue is straitened out my problems will go away. Thanks for your help.

Sent from my iPad

> On Jul 29, 2014, at 8:13, "SpeedsterOwners.com" <alerts@hoop.la> wrote:
>

I have finally found time to work on my car. It looks like I have power from only one circuit off of the fuse block. I am not sure what is even holding the fuses in place. I think I am going to replace the fuse block with an up to date style with the new style fuses if I can find one from somewhere. I have been searching but am not really sure what the requirements would be or where to actually look to purchase one. Thanks for your help.

Sent from my iPad

> On Jul 27, 2014, at 21:58, "SpeedsterOwners.com" <alerts@hoop.la> wrote:
>

If you have a VS and if they used a stock, VW-style as I think they did, then consider that VW used that same, flimsy-looking fuse block for 37-1/2 Billion cars or so for hundreds of years and they seemed to work OK.

 

Occasionally, it helps to clean off the contact tabs with steel wool or sand paper to shine them up (the bullet ends of the individual fuses, too) and at the same time gently bend the tabs toward each other a bit so they make a better contact.

 

However, if your problem is not a blown fuse I would look at the wire feeding that other side to see what's going on there.  These things are so simple that the solution will be simple, too.

 

Those ceramic fuses are so much trouble.  Someone said new VS harnesses come with ATO style modern fuses.  Here's link to conversion someone on SAMBA did with their old stock VW fuse block.  Seems to be a cheap, quick and easy conversion.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/alb...chematics/574486.jpg

 

 

Thanks for the tip. I looked at the video of their conversion and it looks simple enough. I heard back from Gordon Nichols and he made a good point that beetle's have been around for decades with the same fuse assembly so I think I am going to try and tighten mine up a bit and clean things as well before doing the drastic measure. I get real nervous about messing with all those wires under the dash. I wish I had the courage to just remove about ten pounds of the stuff just to make it more neat and less confusing.

Bob


Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 09:29:08 -0700

Hi Gordon, Thanks for the tip. I have looked under the dash but there are so many damn wires that I can hardly see the fuse box. I was able to put a test probe on the block and could only get a reading off one out going pole. I could see the metal tab on each fuse and they appeared intact. The fuses felt really sloppy so I guess I will pull them out one by one, clean them up and try to bend back the tabs that hold them in place. I will see if that makes a difference. If I ever get this figured out I am going to reduce the amount of wires under there, well not the number but the length as it seems there is a whole lot of extra material just taking space. My car is a Thunder Ranch version.

Bob


Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 06:29:08 -0700