Who’ll give me odds...!

[xvivalve]

The 1500HL auto I bought last summer has both an inoperative temperature gauge and fuel gauge. Is it the voltage stabiliser at faulty, or coincidental and simultaneous failure of the respective sender units?

[marshman]

The 1500HL auto I bought last summer has both an inoperative temperature gauge and fuel gauge. Is it the voltage stabiliser at faulty, or coincidental and simultaneous failure of the respective sender units?

Logic says a common fault is more likely than a simultaneous failure!

Were they working when you first got it? if not then all bets are off as you have no idea what a previous owner may have fiddled with.

If they were working then just do the usual, start at the voltage stabiliser, check for volts in and volts out and go from there -if it is the original bi-metallic sort then of course the output readings can be a bit random on a modern digital voltmeter.

For an electromechanical device the old style voltage regulators are remarkably reliable. The problems start with long over winter layups which give chance for the contacts to stick/corrode etc. Constant use keeps the contacts "electrically clean". As with most bits on the regular use is better than laying up - but then we all now that anyway

Roger

[Carledo]

I'll give evens on the VS and 10-1 on simultaneous sender failure. A side bet says that if you change the VS, the fuel guage may still end up inoperative. Nearly every long laid up Dolomite i've met recently has had a duff fuel sender.

Steve

[TrustNo1]

15 to 1 that there is a lose wire causing the inactivity

[xvivalve]

Fuel gauge was a stuck sender; the float had split and filled with fuel so it no longer floated. Low fuel light still not operating though...

Temperature gauge assumed on that basis to be the sender also...

[Andy s]

I'll give evens on the VS and 10-1 on simultaneous sender failure. A side bet says that if you change the VS, the fuel guage may still end up inoperative. Nearly every long laid up Dolomite i've met recently has had a duff fuel sender.

Steve

[Carledo]

Fuel gauge was a stuck sender; the float had split and filled with fuel so it no longer floated. Low fuel light still not operating though...

Temperature gauge assumed on that basis to be the sender also...

You should know better than that dude! You haven't isolated a fault, just discovered a secondary. The inop warning light tells you that.

Not wanting to use a modern circuit tester is wise with old school VS, but a wire and bulb still tests a circuit! Lacking even that, the correct test is to earth each sender lead with ign on. If the senders alone are faulty the guages will climb to full/hot. If nothing happens, the fault is further back in the system and the VS is a good bet.

Steve

[xvivalve]

….but I replaced the temperature sender to good effect and when I sold the car the only thing not working was the low fuel light!

[sprint95m]

the only thing not working was the low fuel light!

I always remove the bulb from the low fuel warning

Ian

[Carledo]

the only thing not working was the low fuel light!

I always remove the bulb from the low fuel warning

Ian

To be fair, the low fuel light IS a PITA, often flashing and flickering at anything below half a tank. An unwanted distraction in one's peripheral vision at best. And the one in my current daily has never worked, despite replacing a faulty tank sender with a new one, I suspect a duff or missing bulb, but I don't care enough to dismantle the dash to look/fix it! Maybe when I get around to fixing the dim speedo illumination and inoperative oil pressure guage illumination........Or maybe not!

Steve