Help----Oil Guage Problems
Thread Starter
Cruising
Joined: Jul 2008
Posts: 11
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Help----Oil Guage Problems
I have a 1978, 350 Vette. I can not get the oil guage to work. I have replaced the oil guage and the sending unit, but the needle if to the far right and stays there all the time. Could it be the circuit board? All other guages work fine. Any sugestions would be appreciated.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 1,019
Likes: 18
From: St. Louis MO
Take a pencil eraser and clean the contacts on the plug on the back of the circuit board. They tend to carrode a little. check the wire in the motor area for a break as well. You can work up a simple tester to see if it is broke with a battery and a volt/ohm tester. Positive to positive and groung to ground....
Drifting
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 1,924
Likes: 6
Take a pencil eraser and clean the contacts on the plug on the back of the circuit board. They tend to carrode a little. check the wire in the motor area for a break as well. You can work up a simple tester to see if it is broke with a battery and a volt/ohm tester. Positive to positive and groung to ground....
and just be sure the 'dog ears' dont overlap the black connector. Hopefully thats all your problem is, instead of some hack wiring job from a long gone cb or amp a previous owner (PO) may have installed and removed.
Former Vendor
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 76,656
Likes: 1,853
From: Jeffersonville Indiana 812-288-7103
St. Jude Donor '08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15
I suspect Lack of Ohms signal!
If the sender is Teflon taped all the way up it will not make a good ground.
Check the ohms output of the sender and see what reading you have. Use the side of the sender for your ground while testing, if no ohms reading is present the sender is not grounded out.
If you have an ohms reading at the gauge go to the center dash cluster. Pull it out and inspect the connectors at the plug, and then test the connector wires if the printed circuit looks fine.
With the small gauges sitting in your lap you need to test the wire the feeds signal to the gauge. This wire will be (with the pod sitting on your lap) the bottom terminal on the left side of the picture. This wire should have an ohms reading on it for signal. Test this wire and then do a polarity test on the circuit to make sure its good from the terminal tab to the gauge.
The gauge gets power from the second wire down on the left side (right when installed) and the ground to the cluster housing.
It takes three things for the gauge to work, 12 volts, ground and a signal. On the gauge there are four studs as shown in the picture upper left. Also test the 90 ohm shut between the two horizontal post.
If your gauge still fails to work with signal, power and a verified ground then you have a gauge problem.
Willcox Inc.
If the sender is Teflon taped all the way up it will not make a good ground.
Check the ohms output of the sender and see what reading you have. Use the side of the sender for your ground while testing, if no ohms reading is present the sender is not grounded out.
If you have an ohms reading at the gauge go to the center dash cluster. Pull it out and inspect the connectors at the plug, and then test the connector wires if the printed circuit looks fine.
With the small gauges sitting in your lap you need to test the wire the feeds signal to the gauge. This wire will be (with the pod sitting on your lap) the bottom terminal on the left side of the picture. This wire should have an ohms reading on it for signal. Test this wire and then do a polarity test on the circuit to make sure its good from the terminal tab to the gauge.
The gauge gets power from the second wire down on the left side (right when installed) and the ground to the cluster housing.
It takes three things for the gauge to work, 12 volts, ground and a signal. On the gauge there are four studs as shown in the picture upper left. Also test the 90 ohm shut between the two horizontal post.
If your gauge still fails to work with signal, power and a verified ground then you have a gauge problem.
Willcox Inc.
Last edited by Willcox Corvette; Feb 11, 2009 at 08:28 PM.
