Fuel Gauge for dummies

Ok, so i'm heading up to the lake 6 days from now, so I'm quickly gathering all the stuff I need.

Peter I'm here to rack your brain again on this, or gary or bri or whoever, I never got this fuel gauge installed.

I'm at a loss on a couple things that I don't think are hard just someone with past experience I'm sure can easily answer.

Not to go to far off subject, but i need 3 things.

1. Wire that is boat safe? USCG APPROVED???
2. Water proof heat shrink connecters Peter mentioned, i just want to make sure I get the right stuff.
3. Boat safe Fuel line?

I can say categorically that ALL CC boats since approximately 1967 have come from the factory with a fuel gauge and the necessary wiring. The marine tank senders were 240 ohm at the full-of-fuel position until we went to all this digital mumbo-jumbo, which I know nothing about. Bits and bytes scare me to death, but DC circuits all obey E = IR.
Art

OK, I'll buy that.

In my day, E represented voltage and there was no Hertz except for the car rental guy. Oscillation rate was in "cycles per second." Vacuum tubes did all the heavy lifting, and you had to wait a couple of minutes for the radio to "warm up." Young whippersnappers!!!!!
Art

TP,
Get the VOM out and confirm the ground. Yes, some off color wires have been found but you will not be able to confirm the ground unless you do some testing.

8122pbrainard wrote: TP, Get the VOM out and confirm the ground. Yes, some off color wires have been found but you will not be able to confirm the ground unless you do some testing.

My dumbass left my VOM in cincinnati, I might ask my friend if i can borrow his.

I actually realized I made a mistake, these Damn 1st gen teleflex guages for these mustangs are horribly marked, they're just stamped randomly.

So i followed the wires to the engine block. It looks like the red wire is the ignition wire, the white wire is to the engine block, well not quite the engine block, but it's attached to a metal bracket, then the metal bracket is attached to the start mount, which is solid metal. thne this is attached to the motor block, so there is nothing insulating the wire to the engine block. So I assume it's safe to assume this is the ground?

There is also a pretty thick black wire, but it looks to be going to a wired panel back by the engine block.

I'll take some pictures, but Peter you're correct a VOM is much needed!!

Bri, I think I have the gas tank end all figured out, i wired in a new 14ga wire to the engine block for the ground, then there was an unused yellow 18ga wire that i used as the sender to the dash. There actually still another unused wire chilling in the back of the boat that's white. I'm thinking that might be another ground. I noticed they wired all the grounds in white, which is really strange to me, i figured those to be black.

TP,
The ground connection on the gauge itself is only for the illumination. Typically on the Teleflex plastic case, this will be a copper foil strip going to the gauge bracket.

turningpoint84 wrote: The fuel gauge won't read though, so i'm going to just run an entirely new sender wire.

TP,
Before you go running a new sender wire, how about doing some testing? There are too many "parts changers" out there. Ohm out the sender as well as the sender wire. I see you replaced the fuel tank. Did you check the sender with the VOM? Have you grounded the sender wire at the tank to see if the gauge pegs?

Yes, 'Volt Ohm Meter' also referred to as a Multi Meter. Get a basic digital one, usually costs about $15. They are very useful.