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TR3a Fuel Gauge mystery solved

To: "Triumphs@Autox Net \(E-mail\)" <triumphs@autox.team.net>
Subject: TR3a Fuel Gauge mystery solved
From: "David A. Templeton" <davidt@opentext.com>
Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 15:30:18 -0400
About 2 months ago I was trying to diagnose why my fuel gauge was not
working.  The resistance on the sending unit was fine and power to the gauge
was great.  Well, I pulled the gearbox cover off to put the heat/noise
/carpet on it.  While I was waiting for the cement to completely cure I
figured good time to do the minor jobs that I had put off before ( is this
self imposed "shipwrights desease :-D ).

- switched the generator and the indicator light, now the genny light is red
and the turn indicator is yellow :-)

- cleaned up the connection to the left panel lamp and now both sides of the
light up :-).  Powder couting is really hard to scrape off and it makes a
great insulator :-P

- hooked the wire to the panel lamps on the speedo and the tach.

Now, I removed the fuel gauge and figure had nothing to lose, opened it up,
the field coils were at the maximum distance from the armature and turned
180deg in the wrong direction.  Not sure how this occured, but I gently
loosened off the coil nut and repositioned it, then the other.  No broken
wires internally either :-)

Put it all back together and tried again, this time she read 1/4 tank woo
hoo.....  But, the tank is almost full, so I figure the coils are still out
of alignment.  Looking at the back of the gauge, the coil under the "B"
terminal is now about 1/64" higher than the other one.

I am assuming both coils should be about the same distance from the armature
to provide a consistant magnetic field?  I will bench test this so ISTR the
resistance of the fuel sender, 55-85ohms?

Thanks
David A. Templeton
'59 TR3a - 9TS54226L ( "9" denotes the CDN import on year of mfr )
'74 Spitfire - FM10491L

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