My 51 styleline deluxe was converted to 12v before I came into possession of it. The fuel gauge didn’t get a voltage reducer so it’s toast. I’ve tested it a number of ways to confirm this. There’s a few sites selling replacements in 6v or 12v. Does anyone have any feedback on which one I should get? I was originally just going to get the 12v version but then I read a post from someone that regretted getting that version. They said that it just gave them a bunch of issues and they wish they had gone with the 6v version and used a voltage reducer. I appreciate any thoughts.
More info needed. Is the tank and/or the sender an original or is it a new tank with an after market sender? You need to determine how man ohms the sender is and match this up to the guage.
If Fargo is the brand in question they have what they term “floating needle system”. This doesn’t let the needle to return to E when you turn off your vehicle. It stay’s where the current fuel level is in the tank at shut off. That said, I installed one once and it worked great, I just didn’t care for that function. I prefer the needle to rest at E.
The tank is original and as far as I know the sender is too. I plan on sticking a new standard 30 ohm sender in the tank when I replace the fuel gauge though.
Did you measure the resistance of the sending unit that's in it now? Just disconnect the wire, and measure the resistance between the wire that goes to the tank, and ground. It should be anywhere from zero (if the tank is empty) to 30 (if the tank is full) Ohms. If it measures more than 30 Ohms, I would suspect the sender is bad. If it's in that range, then I would not bother replacing the sender, unless you know for sure that there is a problem with it. Did you test the gauge by connecting a resistor (perhaps 15 Ohm) in place of the sending unit, and see if it registers? If all the above is showing you the gauge is broken, you probably want to use a 6v gauge and a voltage reducer, such as a LM7806 or LM7808.
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