Dan writes:
> On a cold morning, the fuel
>gauge will read less gas than it did the night before when you parked it,
>even though you still have the same amount of gas. When it is very cold, it
>takes more current to heat the strip, so the readings are low.
This is an interesting circuit. <to me anyway> :-)
*Both* the voltage stabiliser and fuel gauge work with heaters. For
this reason they behave in a complementary fashion, offsetting their
own errors with regard to ambient temperature. Colder temp: Stabiliser
contacts stay closed longer, more juice to chilly gauge. Quite
brilliant actually. On my car it works properly and the gauges read
correctly whether or not it's 90F or 20F.
Doesn't mean my car will actually start at 20F you understand. :-)
This is why you *don't* want to replace the stabiliser with a
"precision" solid state regulator...you'll get exactly the effect you
describe above. The solid state regulator has no feelings. It doesn't
know how to treat those nice smith's gauges when there's a nip in the
air or when they're getting hot under the collar. :-)
Tom O'Malley
'74, '77 Spits
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