MIDNIGHT RIDER
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- Joined
- Sep 29, 2005
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I went to install the Rear Tank Sending Unit which I had modified some weeks ago and thoroughly tested for action.
I thought it was good to go.
Heading across the porch, on my way to drop it in the tank, I thought "That wire is not connected"
Sure enough, that solid-core Dark Green wire that connects the terminal up top to the actual gauge sender was broken loose from the sender.
It looked connected, but you could slide a dollar bill between it and where it attached.
Good that I caught that before I went to all the trouble of getting it all signed, sealed, and delivered.
I scraped the Copper button, where it was previously clinched under, clean and shiny with my Old Timer.
I stripped the wire back about half-an-inch and scraped it clean with my Old Timer.
The wire insulation was tough as leather and hard to cut and strip; not like this cheap soybean mouse candy and baby soft PVC stuff they use nowadays.
I believe people had sharper/tougher teeth back when I was a kid; as, many is the time I have seen someone strip wires with their teeth; and, wire insulation way back then was one heck of a lot tougher than it is today.
They would clinch the insulated wire in their teeth and give it a hard yank and then spit out the bit of waste insulation; there must have been some sort of carcenogenic mineral their bodies were lacking as I have seen guys chew on a bit of this insulation for hours.
I drilled a 1/16 hole through the Copper button.
I poked the wire down through the hole and bent about 1/8-inch of it 90° to help keep it there.
That wire is pretty small; it was a sloppy fit in my 1/16 hole.
Using my big Weller, I heated the Copper button and flowed solder across the top and down inside the 1/16 hole and around the wire.
Saving me from having to run long test wires into the cab, the wife got in the cab to observe the dash gauge while I manipulated the float arm connected up back.
I moved the float arm through several cycles and always got corresponding action at the dash gauge.
A casual observer would never have spotted the break in the wire.
After my initial bench-testing with long jumper-wires ran into the cab, the sending unit was placed in a safe environment where no harm could come to it.
It makes me wonder if possibly that wire had been broken for a long time and somehow still making the circuit.
The moral of this story is, if your fuel gauge quits reading, check that wire for connection.
I thought it was good to go.
Heading across the porch, on my way to drop it in the tank, I thought "That wire is not connected"
Sure enough, that solid-core Dark Green wire that connects the terminal up top to the actual gauge sender was broken loose from the sender.
It looked connected, but you could slide a dollar bill between it and where it attached.
Good that I caught that before I went to all the trouble of getting it all signed, sealed, and delivered.
I scraped the Copper button, where it was previously clinched under, clean and shiny with my Old Timer.
I stripped the wire back about half-an-inch and scraped it clean with my Old Timer.
The wire insulation was tough as leather and hard to cut and strip; not like this cheap soybean mouse candy and baby soft PVC stuff they use nowadays.
I believe people had sharper/tougher teeth back when I was a kid; as, many is the time I have seen someone strip wires with their teeth; and, wire insulation way back then was one heck of a lot tougher than it is today.
They would clinch the insulated wire in their teeth and give it a hard yank and then spit out the bit of waste insulation; there must have been some sort of carcenogenic mineral their bodies were lacking as I have seen guys chew on a bit of this insulation for hours.
I drilled a 1/16 hole through the Copper button.
I poked the wire down through the hole and bent about 1/8-inch of it 90° to help keep it there.
That wire is pretty small; it was a sloppy fit in my 1/16 hole.
Using my big Weller, I heated the Copper button and flowed solder across the top and down inside the 1/16 hole and around the wire.
Saving me from having to run long test wires into the cab, the wife got in the cab to observe the dash gauge while I manipulated the float arm connected up back.
I moved the float arm through several cycles and always got corresponding action at the dash gauge.
A casual observer would never have spotted the break in the wire.
After my initial bench-testing with long jumper-wires ran into the cab, the sending unit was placed in a safe environment where no harm could come to it.
It makes me wonder if possibly that wire had been broken for a long time and somehow still making the circuit.
The moral of this story is, if your fuel gauge quits reading, check that wire for connection.
