[Staowners] [Fwd: Alpine Mk 1 tank gauge]

[George Simpson - Forums]

Roland - no replies yet. I read that the voltage to the gauge usually 
comes through a small voltage regulator and will be a little less than 
12 volts. This makes sense because if the petrol gauge is effectively a 
voltmeter, the voltage in the car's system changes depending on whether 
it is charging or not. I tried to activate the gauge with a 9v battery 
but got the same result.

I have a couple of other old petrol gauges, including a round Smiths and 
get the same results - 12v applied to the terminals gets the needle to 
react but only to the zero mark and reversing the polarity makes no 
difference ... a 12v bulb in series with the sender can be dimmed with 
the arm lowered.

How can I simulate the working of the gauge on my workbench?

George
Cognac


Mr Roland RF Rolandthompson wrote:
> Hi George, have you had any advise on how to cure the problem?? I have 
> the same problem. Roland T.
>
>     ----- Original Message -----
>     *From:* George Simpson - Forums
>     <mailto:george.simpson.forums at neuf.fr>
>     *To:* S-T Alpine Owners Mailing List
>     <mailto:staowners at sunbeamtalbot.info>
>     *Sent:* Tuesday, April 01, 2008 2:26 AM
>     *Subject:* [Staowners] [Fwd: Alpine Mk 1 tank gauge]
>
>
>     Ernie - following our correspondence of a few months ago, last
>     week I got a complete set of instruments from Mark Chatel and now
>     I'm home again, I took the petrol/temp gauge out of the frame. I
>     have a spare AC sender so I started as suggested and tested the
>     sender with a 12v supply and with a 12v 6W bulb in series  ....
>     good news, the bulb went from dull to bright as I raised the float
>     arm.
>
>     Then I looked at the petrol gauge. Funnily enough, if I hold the
>     instrument upside down (I know - Alpines are not often in the
>     position!!!), the gauge slowly goes round to FULL. I then gave the
>     two terminals a brief 'jolt' with 12 volts. The needle came off
>     its stop and sat on Empty - ah-ha, I thought, a good start. Then I
>     reversed the wires to see if anything changed ...... no - the
>     needle just came up to Empty again. Being a perverse character, I
>     turned the gauge upside down and tried again. The needle still
>     moved to the Empty mark.
>
>     Next step, connect them all up. Once connected, the gauge came off
>     its stop up to the Empty mark but when I raised the float, the
>     needle moved about a millimetre into the range - it was a barely
>     imperceptible movement but there was a movement. I then reversed
>     the terminals on the gauge but got exactly the same result.
>
>     All of this I did before getting the old gauge and sender out of
>     my car to be sure everything worked but, as you can see, I have
>     not made a lot of progress. The sender is an AC unit looking
>     identical to the one shown on p. 144 of the Parts Supply book. It
>     came with a paper tag showing 764 which might or might not have
>     been some sort of reference at an AutoJumble.
>
>     All suggestions are welcome
>
>     George
>     Cognac
>
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://sunbeamtalbot.info/pipermail/staowners_sunbeamtalbot.info/attachments/20080405/b3a4df02/attachment.html