My fuel gauge needle moves from full to about 1/2. Also, the needle bounces a lot.
Is there a set with tank float and connections that would eliminate or minimize the needle bounce?
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What gauge set do you have ?
i quit looking at mine,,just figure how far U can safely go on a tank,odometer time.
ALAN: Sorry I didn't post a reply sooner. I did crawl under the dash, there were no markings I could see except for the speedo. Aside from "Made in China" there was "QM60 - MP". I bought the set on eBay. The gauges are not digital, and are 105mm in diameter. The gauges look like the ones that came in my Speedster when it was new in 2005. I think these were sold on the "Vintage Speedster Parts" site, but when I checked today, they only offer a digital set.
My thought was, there must be the equivalent of a modem that reads the tank float and tells the fuel gauge where the needle should be relative to the float position. I'm sure it's not a plug & play thing. I was hoping you and/or some of the others can steer me to the parts I need to dial the thing in.
BARNCOBOB: Your suggestion is solid and my default position. Unfortunately, sometimes I can't leave well enough alone. Hopefully, ALAN will help me avoid burning down my dash.
Sometimes this works... With battery disconnected: Remove the float and if you can get at the windings gently clean them with a small piece of green Scuffy pad etc.
100 miles in town, 175 on the highway.
Late model VW Karman Ghias and the Porsche 914 used a tube sender without the long wire arm. They don't have wild arm fluctuations.
http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDe...ductCode=VDO-224-225
WOLFGANG posted:Late model VW Karman Ghias and the Porsche 914 used a tube sender without the long wire arm. They don't have wild arm fluctuations.
http://www2.cip1.com/ProductDe...ductCode=VDO-224-225
That would certainly do it. The liquid level in the tube will not fluctuate as drastically as the tank level when moving and turning. Here's an easy fix (if you have a restoration show on TV, it will only take about 3 minutes). Take the tank out of the car, cut it in half horizontally. Weld three or four baffles inside the tank to the bottom half. Place them vertically spaced equally apart to divide the tank into quadrants. The baffles need to have holes in them so the liquid can disperse equally throughout the tank. The holes cannot line up baffle to baffle, they must be staggered. Make sure there are half holes on the bottom of the baffles so that all gas can get to the outlet. Re-weld the top half back on, re-install and Wah-lah. Your liquid level "should" stay relatively calm. +/-, give and take, so to speak. You could also build a metal box that would fit around your current wire float to do the same thing that the tube does to the indicator Wolfgang showed you. It might be a problem getting it INTO the tank, but it will work if you do succeed. Think ship in a bottle. Easy right? Glad I could help.
These guys that weld used tanks should duct tape poster board wings to their arse ...they are going places.
Yup even years old gas fumes go boom! Like checking fuel level with a match or siphoning gas with a vacuum cleaner. Sign up for the Darwin award.
Near HS, a Sunoco station's entire front section that traveled across two lane of a highway because the Professional mechanic decided it was ok to empty a gas tank and pump in exhaust from another running car and weld, said mechanic didn't make it.
Okay, the consensus among posters is that there's no plug & play fix, save a Karmann/914 sender. I'll try cleaning the windings ala Alan. If no joy, I'll order up one of those Karmann/914 sender things.
BTW: Wolfgang, I dig how messed up you are. Don't ever stop posting, as long as you're around the rest of us will seem less messed up.
Thanks for the help. IKSUAMA
what about a VW fuel sender ******** like used in the old Beetles?
Old fart here - so I have learned from my mistakes over time. Not blown up yet but missing one fingertip from errant power planer (leaned fingertip is way easier to cut than oak - so use guard and push stick next time. Also pay attention when using any circular saw/chainsaw - they don't care what they cut.
my 60 had a lever u pulled up when out of gas,gave another 1/2 gallon..
I can't believe the word "vibr8tor" gets automatically censored by this site.
@Ewatub , I've got the 105mm Chinese repop gauges that came standard in my 2013 VS. Knock on fiberglass, but the fuel gauge has always been pretty accurate - 4/4 when full, 2/4 at half a tank, etc.
Yeah, the needle bounces around, but it's not too tough to read the middle of the swing when underway, or just wait until you come to a stop.
I DID notice on the SoCal Auto Parts site, though, that they have two senders - a no-name one for about $25 and a VDO-branded one for about $50. It looks like my VS has the VDO one, judging from the photo on the SoCal page. Here's mine:
You might try talking to Andy at SoCal. He used to work for Kirk and probably knows which sender works best with the gauges VS installs.
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barncobob posted:my 60 had a lever u pulled up when out of gas,gave another 1/2 gallon..
I had a .57 bug with no gas gauge. I carried a 1' ruler in the trunk. It did have the manual floor lever - but you had to be careful to switch it back or you could easily run out. Gas was 19.6 cents/gallon back then. So $2 was a fill up.
Alan, Wolfgang, Craig & Sacto Mitch: Thanks all, I'll need a few days to chase down your leads to deal with my bouncy needle.
Sacto Mitch: My goal is to get my gauge to read accurately when the car is stopped. I'm okay with the needle moving around when the car's in motion.
Thanks again.
That's an admirable goal. My goal is to lose 40 lbs and grow some hair on the top of my head.
The gauge will never be accurate. It will read like you are getting 50 mpg for the first half-tank, then drop like a stone over the next 30 mi. I sent mine out and had it converted to an oil pressure gauge so there would be something useful in the prime real-estate the useless gas gauge occupies.
Just use the trip odometer. Don't ever reset it while you are moving, and you'll be fine.
Stan Galat posted:That's an admirable goal. My goal is to lose 40 lbs and grow some hair on the top of my head.
The gauge will never be accurate. It will read like you are getting 50 mpg for the first half-tank, then drop like a stone over the next 30 mi.
True. One of the main problems has to be the irregular shape of the small VS tank. Once mine dips to the half-filled mark the needle truly does drop like a rock, and in concert with that, as the gas sloshes around the needle will bob up and down like a cork.
My gas gauge seems fairly accurate and doesn't bounce when 3/4 to Full or Empty - 1/4. Its doesn't stop bouncing anywhere in between (also makes a clicking noise when bouncing)?
Stan Galat: So noted, I will align my expectations accordingly, from low to lower. I use the trip odometer/gallons pumped math for mileage. Not scientific but close.
Back to the bouncy needle. I'll clean the windings ala Alan, if no joy, I'll chase down Sacto's sender suggestion since he has the same gauges. If still no joy, I'll do the Karmann/914 sender.
I may never find the end of the trail (thanks Stan) but at least I may be on it. Thanks.
IKSUAMO
I never understood what that little ******** (caught by SOC moderator - vibr8tor) box on certain years of VW gas gauges did - anyone? Somehow it balances out the signal so the needle doesn't fluctuate. (Yet one can say nipple hubcap all day long!)
WOLFGANG posted:I never understood what that little ... vibr8tor...box on certain years of VW gas gauges did - anyone?
Pretty good explanation here.
If I'm reading it right, there were two kinds of gauges - a 'thermal' type that was designed to even out the wild swings from the sender as the car moved, and also to even out variations in the car's voltage as the voltage regulator (the one connected to the generator/alternator) cycled on and off.
The other type of gauge was simpler and less dampened.
The 'vibr8tor' was a crude type of voltage regulator just for the fuel gauge, intended to add more damping.
I'm pretty sure our repop gauges are the cruder type (or worse) and show every fluctuation in the sender.
Anyhow, read the article and come up with your own interpretation, as my reading comprehension has deteriorated somewhat with age.
If you buy a set of Speedhut gauges from Greg at Vintage Motorcars, they work without any needle bobbing. They use stepper motors for the needles, and electronics dampen any hysterics of float movement. But they aren't cheap.
I often wondered what that "viberator" did (no, not THAT one, the one on the back of the Speedo/Fuel gauge in a VW Bug, and I can't believe that this silly site censored the correct spelling of that word.....)
That's why Anthony (I think) once said that adding a VW viberator to one of our gauges wouldn't work. NOW, I understand why not! It is only half of the needed circuitry that makes the gauge work and provides damping to the needle. The viberator is nothing more than a crude voltage regulator to provide a stable reference voltage, otherwise the gauge needle would become inaccurate. The real damping happens inside of the gauge.
Great article find, Mitch!
It would be a cool exercise to come up with a sampling circuit to take raw voltage from the sender and convert it to RMS (Root Mean Squared - a way of providing an "average" of the raw incoming voltage). That way you would be, in effect, "damping" the gauge needle movement by supplying a slowly changing average of what the gas gauge sender is providing and THAT is what you see on modern gauges.
In the meantime, I find it pleasantly amusing to watch my gas gauge needle swinging wildly all over the place and guessing at how much is really left in the tank. And I haven't run out of gas, yet!
I found out by sheer accident that when the needle is bouncing you have gas and about 30 miles after it stops bouncing at all there isn’t any more. LOL
Robert M posted:I found out by sheer accident that when the needle is bouncing you have gas and about 30 miles after it stops bouncing at all there isn’t any more. LOL
That is about bang on, Robert. When we first brought the speedster from Boise to home, I found myself in a difficult out of gas potential. Pulled off where there was an indicated gas bar somewhere in Colo and the freeking place was closed. Down the road, right in view was a boat repair place...late in the day on Friday. We drove up, two big guys were having a beer and I explained the problem. One said he had a jug of gas in his truck and said it'll cost me $5. We put it in the Speedster and my Wife gave him $10. Next day we visited Buffalo Bill's gravesite and moved Eastward.
( As and aside )....coming down some long multi lane highway out of Denver heading East , we were overtaken by a giant Harley guy with a beaut of a B o B. We had no plates on the car and only a travel sticker under the driver's seat. While we were puttering down the slope at about 55 mph he checked out the rear, pulled ahead and looked back for a front plate and saw nothing. He just laughed and pulled away. I blew her a kiss and got one back. That was a good day. I like road trips.
You might want to ask Carey (@chines1) What they do as my gas gauge needle was steady and pretty darned accurate.