I swear there is a Ma Mopar ghost running around screwing with us lol. You’ll get it sorted out, looks good. Dan
I had a couple hours this afternoon between appointments, so I went after the no start problem. I unbolted the upper column mount so I had access to the ignition switch, I had found a wiring diagram on line I was willing to try. I made a note of where the wires were positioned, then pulled the wires off the switch, and inserted them into the pattern I copied on line late last night. Then put the battery cable back on. At least this time, the gauges are not activated with the switch in the off position, but when I turned the switch, I got a big nothing! No clicking of the relay, not a thing going on, completely dead! Well now, that was disappointing. I popped the plug off the starter relay and checked for power on the yellow wire with my test light, nothing. Then I checked for power at that terminal on the switch, nothing. The I checked for power at all the other terminals, the only one with power was the terminal the battery power was on, so I know at least the battery isn't dead. None of the other 5 terminals had any power in any position of the switch. OK, that was a first! I put the wires back on the terminals like they were when I started, Still the only terminal that had power this time was the battery power terminal. every other terminal on the switch had no power! I pulled the switch off, clamped it in the vice, and attacked it with my ohm meter, and ran the switch through its positions several times. Every cycle showed different ohm readings each time I moved the switch through the steps. It sure appears the new ignition switch is defective! A new replacement switch will be here Friday morning.
I’m telling ya Gene it’s a switch conspiracy lol. Hard to believe that so many new parts are defective. Dan
I agree. Its really sad when you don't really expect a new part to function correctly. I'm hoping the new switch that is suppose to come in in the morning will be good, and lasts a long time. I s****ped a lot of old Mopars back in the late 70s to early 90s (funded my hot rod addiction). If only I would have known new switches were going to be an issue, I would have saved a pile of good used ones. My project for the day was to help my son ***emble his 5.7 motor. It was a welcome change! I'll be back on the wagon after the new switch arrives tomorrow, and will hopefully be able to move on to the next area after the weekend.
The new switch came in this morning (the switch was in a "Standard Electronics" box, but the exchange went without an issue. When I got home, once mounted on the column, I plugged the wires in the way the last diagram I had showed me was the way, it was not correct (at least on this switch). Then I swapped the wires back to the way I had it wired early on, that was not the way either. I pulled the switch off the column and clamped it's mounting bracket in the vice, so I could test the terminals with the ohm meter. At this point, I didn't car which way the wires were connected, I only cared that they were in a position that functioned with this switch. All of the wiring diagrams I looked at pretty much agreed which terminal was suppose to the terminal for the starter. I drew a picture of the switch terminals and numbered each terminal clamped one lead on my ohm meter onto that terminal on the top row, farthest to the right is the starter terminal, that is my #1. My numbers went to the left on the Top 1st row, #1 is the top right, #5 it on the top, left side. 2nd row (middle), # 6 is the far right, #9 is the far left side. 3rd row (bottom), # 10 is on the right, #11 is on the left. The car ran with 6 wires connected to the original switch (three 12 gauge wires connected to the battery connection, one 14 gauge wire, and one 22 gauge wire connected to the ignition post, one 14G yellow wire connected to the start terminal) With the switch in the spring loaded crank position, #1 (crank terminal), #6 Battery hot (12 gauge wire) #7 has continuity during crank and ignition on, as does #8. I connected the 14 gauge wire (fused ignition), and the 22 gauge wire (secondary fused ignition) to these two terminals. Terminals #2 and #3 both had continuity with terminal #6 only when the switch was in the on position, nothing when the switch was in the crank position. I have the other two 12 gauge wires connected to these two terminals. None of the terminals had any continuity with any other terminal when the switch was in the off position. None of the terminals had continuity with any other terminal when the switch was in accessory position. Terminals #4, #5, #9, #10, or #11 ever had continuity with anything else ever. Just for fun, I did swap a few wires around to see if they would work in a different position. They did NOT. Its this way if I want it to start and run. In my mind that screams incorrect, but it works with this switch (which may also be defective). The car starts and runs, and everything functions when the switch is in the on position, and every thing shuts off when the key is turned off. The 6 wires that were on the original switch all have a home. There is not anything that would get power with the key in the accessory position. There is nothing that gets power with out the ignition switch being turned on (the headlights only function with the ignition switch turned on). I suspect there may also be some funky vehicle wiring going on too. I'm going with it as long as this ignition switch lasts. I drew myself a wiring diagram for this switch, and have all the wires labeled. The dimmer switch was much easier, I have low beam headlights, and I have high beam headlights, I don't have an indicator light on the dash telling me if the high beam lights are on, or if the low beam lights are on, but I think I should be able to figure that our pretty quickly. They don't work without the ignition switch turned on, but at least I won't have a dead battery because I left the lights on. The turn signal switch did work (pretty much). With the car running, the left turn signal turned on, I have a left side front light, and a left side rear turn light, and even a left turn indicator on the dash. On the right side, I had a right side turn light, but nothing on the right front, and no right side indicator light on the dash. Those two lights are wired together through the same crimp on spade terminal. While I was messing with the wires under the dash, I may have blown a fuse, because suddenly none of them work. I took that as a warning to move on from the wiring for today. I have the air bled out of power steering rack, and have the reservoir filled up to the full line. The power steering functions great, and that are no leaks. The steering wheel is not exactly centered when the wheels point straight forward, that can be adjusted out. The tires are on the car and the car is back on its tires. The tools are all picked up and put back in their proper place. I even put the new plates on the wagon, so its got real license plates. I even mowed the lawn! After the way most of this week has went, I'm calling today a win! I'll be helping my son put the 5.7 Hemi back into his 57 Dodge wagon tomorrow, and plan to take Sunday off. The back up camera and side view mirror are suppose to be here Monday.
Back on the wagon late this morning. Today was a day of discovery, working on the fuel tank area. The first rant, the guys that built the car covered the entire floor (and the firewall) with jute carpet backing they thought was best to glue to the floor (and the firewall). I guess that was OK, they used the car 3-4 years, and the jute is still glued down. The problem is when you need to get under the jute, the first layer still sticks to the metal, and the top 3/4 pulls right off. The glued down layer sticks to everything that comes into contact with it. The guys had a habit of using self tapping screws to screw things together, the glue and that first layer of jute sticks very nicely to the screw heads. The fuel tank sits partly where the original spare tire well used to be. I say partly because the spare tire well is offset from the center of the car, towards the p***enger side. Once the 3 self tapping screws were removed (that were covered by glued down jute) and the 36" diameter original spare tire cover was removed (also covered with glued down jute), it was plane to see the entire wheel well was removed. The very old, black plastic, fuel cell is mounted on a 1.250 square tube bracket that is welded to the frame. The very old, black plastic, fuel cell is 17" wide, front to back, 26" long, side to side, and 9" high, according to online web sites, the fuel cell capacity is 17.221 gallons. The original spare tire well had to be removed because the right side Dakota frame rail and fuel cell mounting brackets occupy the same air space as the spare tire well would have. The fuel cell is centered in the car, making the left 12" or so of the fuel cell under the floor pan. With out much doubt, the top of the fuel cell was opened up to accept the 97 Dakota factory fuel pump ***embly. Originally, the top of the fuel cell would have had a retaining ring made of metal, with tapped holes for the fuel cells original fuel pump opening, and that metal ring would have been molded into the cell material. At some point in time, that original ring was removed, and the center hole was enlarged (may have been well before the guys that built the car got involved). A new metal ring was made that has holes that match up with the mounting holes for the Dakota fuel pump (ten 1/4 /20 bolts), and holes that sort of match up with the bolt holes were drilled through the plastic top of the cell. This is where the fun began! I needed to pull the fuel pump to check the sending unit ohm readings (swing the float from full to empty), and I wanted to make sure the pick up tube was on the bottom of the cell. After pulling the pump, I discovered the the modification of the top of the tank. That was also when I discovered that the method the guys held the threaded ring in place was by threading a couple of bolts up through a couple of holes in the ring and have the bolt threads bind on the miss drilled holes in the plastic. There is a locking ring that sits on the top of the pump housing that freely turns. The bolts that hold the fuel pump on place p*** through the holes in the free floating lock ring, through the improperly drilled holes in the top of the cell, and then into the threaded plate. The problem is, the misaligned holes in the plastic pull the two bolts that are threaded up through the threaded ring off just enough those two bolts done exactly fit through the holes in the lock ring they have to p*** through (so a nut will thread onto them) in order to hold everything together. To make things more fun, there is a band of rubber that sits between the sides of the pump, and the sides of the plastic and the threaded ring, so fuel doesn't slosh around the top of the pump. I spent several very frustrating hours before I got that mess back together. If I have to take that apart again, something is going to change. On the good news side, I have the ohm reading for the fuel gauge, it is 73 Ohm empty, and 10 ohm full, standard Mopar (so I know the pump is 97 Dakota). The bad news is the ohm for the gauge is 0 empty, and 100 full. A new white face fuel gauge is on the way here (between Wed & Friday), the back light is a different color, but there was no other choice. I also know for a fact that the fuel pump pickup filter is on the bottom of the tank. I also know that the vent hose (for easy fuel filling) had a bad kink in it, almost plugging air flow through the hose completely. Hopefully I can pick up a new hose tomorrow to solve that problem. . I also found a rattle I can easily fix when I put it all back together. When they ran the 3 self tapping screws through the sheet metal floor, they screwed through both pieces of sheet metal at the same time. On two of the screws there is an air gap between the two pieces of metal. I will drill the hole in the top piece of metal a bit larger, so the self tapping screws only thread into the bottom piece of metal, that will tighten up the any air gap, and eliminate the rattles. It was a long challenging day, but I should be able to get it all back together tomorrow.
Today was an easy day, finally! I picked up a vent hose and a few things I will be needing over the course of the week. The vent hose is installed, and there are no leaks around the fuel pump. The cover is back over the hole, and screwed down. I installed the side mirror, and ran the wires for the back up camera. Then i went in the house to get my wife so I could adjust the side mirror for her, and she could pick out the location to mount the back up camera screen. The mirror got a thumbs up, but she was very impressed with the back up camera. The location she picked made mounting it easy. At this point, the screen mounts with a suction cup, I cleaned up the dash (I don't think its been cleaned in 50 years). The dash is clean, smooth, and pretty much flat, we are going to try the suction cup and see how well it works. The first time the suction cup fails, I'll make a bracket. Then I spent a little time modifying the modern stick on the windshield inside rear view mirror. I had removed the original inside mirror because it was too small (her words), the modern version is almost double the length of the original. The old mirror mounted to the division bar at the center of the two piece windshield with a 5/16" fine threaded rod with a lock nut, that stuff is all part of the old mirror. I did some scratching, and found a new 5/16 fine thread bolt here, but its only 3/4" long (really needs to be 1" long). At any rate, I decided to mutilate the modern mirror mounting post, so I could mount it to the center division bar. I drilled out the hole, the ground on both sides of the piece that holds the glue on anchor. I need to pick up a 1" long fine thread bolt now, if I can't make this work, I have destroyed another vintage piece. Oh well its not the first vintage part I've killed, off and probably won't be the last. I picked up my tools and called it a day. Tomorrow, I will probably run out and get a 1" long fine thread 5/16" bolt for the inside mirror. Then I'm going to see why the turn signals suddenly quit working. The right front light has no lens, the possibility that the bulb has died is there, but its also possible I bumped the wrong wire from under the dash, when I was looking for why the right front light, and its indicator on the dash were not functioning (the rear turn flashed until everything abruptly quit. If I can get the turn signals to function, we car drive the car again. If the fix isn't easy, the dash has to come out when the new fuel gauge arrives (between tomorrow and Sat), I will do the deep investigation then. I suppose I should order the replacement lens I found online a month ago. Then I think I'm going to make a test run of the wiper motor with 12 volts for a short run. I just need to figure out the wiring. The wiper motor has 3 cut off wires hanging from it. I know one is power, one is ground, and one is park. I know originally that the wiper was 6 volt, positive ground. I've been told that switching from positive ground to negative ground is no problem, and that a short run time won't hurt the motor (I'm only running it long enough to make sure it functions). I will invest in a 15 amp voltage reducer. Two of those hanging wires come from the wiper transmission area, the other one comes from the motor area. I'm going to ***ume the wire from the motor area is the power wire, and the two from the transmission area are the park and the ground. I will do a bit of online searching to see if I can verify that, so if anyone knows, let me know please. Beyond that its calibrate the speedometer, door panels, carpet, and tailpipe modification. We will be chasing down squeaks and rattles as we put on some miles.
Let me say right up front, today was a mellow day. The first thing on the list was figuring out why the turn signals quit working. I started by checking the fuse, but there was just a small problem doing that. The fuse box is a modern unit wit spaces for 14 fuses and a turn signal flasher, and a horn relay connected to it. 12 of the 14 fuse locations had fuses in them, none of which are labeled. I could have just skipped the fuses and checked to see if there was power to the flasher unit, but that wouldn't help identify which fuse is related to the turn signals. Another rabbit trail! Lets start off saying that there is a loop of 8 wires that come out of the back of the fuse box that are zip tied to a dash support, that don't go anywhere. Several of those wires are 10 or 12 gauge and have labels that say things like: feed accessory power (it was taped off, the rest were just cut ends), headlight power (the headlight switch is powered by a wire labeled as heater), hazard, acc1 power, acc2 power, wipers, radio acc power, and suppliant power wire. I reluctantly disconnected the battery cable, and pulled the two screws that held the fuse box onto the firewall. I shortly discovered that all of those hanging wires had battery voltage in them, some fused, the others were directly off the hot side of the fuse box. I did figure out what each fuse powered, and drew a diagram. For the record, all the fuses were good. I followed the power for the turn signal flasher all the way back to the column connection, I had power coming into the turn signal switch. I pulled the steering wheel off to watch the switch in action, then I found my problem. The contact points were dirty! Who would have thought that a steering column that was hanging around a welding shop for years, most of them standing on a steering wheel that was not completely tightened down, could have dirty contacts? Apparently me. I spent some quality time cleaning up the contact points with contact cleaner, clean paper towels, and a bit on minor pressure as I moved the switch through the positions. The top 1/2 of the splines in the wheel and the bottom 1/2 of the splines on the steering shaft didn't look so good either, neither did the bottom 1/2 of the threads on the shaft. I spent some quality time cleaning up booth sets of splines with a small triangle file, and cleaned up the threads on the shaft with a thread file. With everything cleaned up, the turn signal switch operated perfectly, and the steering wheel actually bolted down correctly. Simply amazing.... That worked out so well I thought I would see if the wiper motor functioned. I now knew I had a fused 12 volt wire (even marked as "wiper"). A careful inspection proved that the one wire from the motor side of the wiper was indeed the ground wire. That leaves me with two wires coming out of the wiper transmission as either being the power or the park. Setting out with the powered wiper wire clamped to one of the two wires, and the ground wire grounded, nothing happened. Clamping to the other wire made the wiper run. I labeled all 3 wires on the wiper motor. Then I turned my attention to the wiper switch on the column. That switch is an intermittent switch, all I needed from it was the slow speed, the power in wire, and maybe a ground wire. With my trusty Ohm meter, I put one probe in the terminal the service manual said was incoming power, and cycled the switch to the slow speed position. Then I checked every wire for continuity, only one wire had continuity in the slow speed position. I screwed the fuse box back on the firewall, and ran the plenty long enough wiper wire from the fuse panel to the steering column and cut it to length, then I connected it with the power in wire to the switch with a pair of mating insulated spade terminals. Then I connected the cut off piece of 'wiper labeled wire to the slow position wire with insulated spade terminals. I fed that wire back to the wiper motor and clamped it to the "power wire" for the motor. After connecting the battery terminal, and turning on the ignition, I can turn the wiper motor on and off with the switch. i did discover that the wiper motor is apparently grounded through the wiper body, because the ground wire I connected to on the wiper was not attached to anything. That could create a problem with the voltage reducer I've been looking at, those all have a 12 volt positive connection, and a 12 volt negative connection, plus a positive 6 volt connection and a 6 volt negative connection. If the 6 volt negative connection is the wiper body, do I simple connect both the negative connections from the converter to the wiper body ground? I also have no idea how to connect a park wire to the wiper. While the wiper motor was running, I connected a test light to the wire I ***umed is the park position wire. The test light flashed every few seconds while the motor was running, I sort of expected it to flash once as the switch was turned off, not flash while the wiper is running. Other then the park on the wipers, and the question about the voltage reducer, I'm pretty content with the out come of the wiper situation. I did pick up a couple different lengths of 5/16" fine thread bolts (and a package of two fine thread nuts), finishing that inside mirror might be tomorrows job. Now I'm going to be pacing the floor waiting for the new fuel gauge to arrive. Since I'm going to have the dash insert out of the car, I'm also thinking I really need to straighten out the fuse box/ ignition switch wiring issue. If I knew what wiring kit was used, I'd probably buy a wiring diagram, or installation instruction manual. I would really like the headlight switch powered by the head light wire, and the heater wire saved to operate the heater blower, but apparently not everyone thinks that way. I have proof. It may sound like I'm discussed with the entire project at this point, actually I'm really pleased at where I am on the time line. I've been changing a lot of things that were done on the car to the way I think they should be done. The car arrived here 42 days ago, it took a week to establish a wish list. Then we were gone for 9 days after that. Not all of those other 25 days were work on the car days. Great progress and great improvements have been made in that short time frame.
Park on wipers makes many question converting to Santaria or Voodoo. Was the test light showing a ground pulse or power pulse? If you can get a good pic of the fuse box and wires coming out, it might be a separate thread question.
I've been loafing the last couple of days. The only accomplishment on the wagon was installing the inside rear view mirror. I had picked up a 1" long fine threaded bolt, then when i saw that the 1 1/4" long fine threaded bolt was fully threaded, I also picked up a package of 2 fine threaded nuts. That was good foresight! The 1" long 5/16" fine thread bolt held the mirror on the division bar, but bottomed out before the mirror was tight enough. When i put the nut on the 1.25" long bolt, and threaded it down to the head, I was able to mount the mirror on the division bar, until it bottomed in the hole, then I could tighten the mirror up nice and tight with the nut. I was amazed how much better I could see out the back of the car with a mirror that was 2" wider then the original mirror was. I expected some improvement, but not nearly as much as there was. The only other thing I accomplished was growing a better understanding about how the original wiper system functioned, thanks to @ Crazy Steve for his explanation. I'm going to order a 15 amp, 12 volt to 6 volt voltage reducer for the wipers, then probably power the wiper wiring through a relay like @ Crazy Steve suggested. I'm still waiting for my new fuel gauge to arrive (tracking says it will be delivered tomorrow). While the dash panel is out (so I can install the gauge), I believe I'm going to take a shot of correcting the fuse panel and wiring mess. We might put a few miles on the wagon this weekend!
So, here we are, Monday has pretty much come and gone, and no gauge yet. Maybe tomorrow? The weather people are predicting mid to upper 90s and increasing humidity all the rest of the week. It was already 85 by 8:30 this morning, I'm not too excited about jumping into taking the car apart to deal with the fuse box and ignition switch deal, with those predicted temps on the near horizon. If the fuel gauge comes tomorrow, I may still wait until later in the week to dive into it all. Last weekend we put about 50-60 miles on the wagon. Our little town has a byp*** on US 20, around the north edge of town. It departs from US 20 Business on the east side of town, has an exchange at IL RT 75 about 3 miles later, then the 2nd exchange at IL 26, about 4 miles west of the IL rt 75 exchange. That IL 26 exchange is about a mile north of my house (the closest place the byp*** gets to Freeport). The next exchange is where it rejoins US 20 Business, about 7 miles west of the IL 26 exchange. Most of the byp*** is a divided 4 lane, pretty smooth road. About a mile from the western Business US 20 exchange, the byp*** narrows down to a 2 lane highway, which extends to Galena IL, about 50 miles west of Freeport. US 20 west of Freeport is currently under badly needed re-construction, but I believe it will mostly remain a 2 lane highway. US 20 going east is a 4 lane divided highway for around 50 miles. The byp*** around Freeport is a very nice smooth road. From my house, I can be on the byp*** in about 2 minutes, If I go towards the east, I have a smooth 65 mph 4 mile run on a divided highway until I take the route IL 75 exit. IL 75 was repaved a couple years ago, so it too is pretty smooth. St the stop sign at the bottom of the exit, i can turn left and continue east, or I can turn right, which will take me back towards Freeport. About a 1/2 mile right from the bottom of the IL75 exit there is a bar (after the large curve on the left side of the road called "Big Os") that serves very good food. Big O's is about a mile out of town. IL 75 is pretty smooth until you get into Freeport. For the record, the trip to Big O's is only about 2 miles farther around the byp***, but both take nearly the same amount of time from my house by either going through town, or around the byp***. Most of Freeport's main arterial streets make up for all the smooth roads that may surround it. They have finally begun to repair them, but they have a long way to go. About this time, your probably wondering what this has to do with the wagon. On those smooth roads, the wagon is a dream to drive, very smooth, and fairly quite. On the rough roads, it sounds like the car is falling apart, especially at the back end of the car. Any bump that moves the rear leaf springs more then an inch makes the leaf springs hit against both tail pipes, another 1/2" and the tailpipes are pushed up into the body on both sides (the left side is slightly worse then the right side is, so they don't hit evenly, its one side then the other). In several other places, there is metal hitting metal. Some of those places are caused by rushed workmanship on the original build, other places are caused by things misaligned, and other places are caused by wore out, or missing weather stripping. I believe 60% of those things can be corrected by replacing worn weather stripping, and minor adjustments. The other 40% will require more effort. Reducing the banging, rattling, and squeaks (metal rubbing against metal), will improve the amount of time spent cruising around in the wagon a lot. Most of the miles we put on over the weekend were in town, on the rough roads. To put this into perspective, my 40 truck is a 4x4 truck. Its more refined, nearly all the squeaks and rattles have been removed from it. The contrast in the difference between the truck and the wagon, on the same roads is astounding. If I can eliminate 50% of the easy stuff, and solve the tailpipe issue, the car would be much more fun to drive. So, since I still had no parts, and really wanted to accomplish something before the heat drove me into the AC, I went after 2 known rattles. There is space between the rear bumper and the body that has a tin cover to hide the bumper brackets. Pictured is the filler panel and the rear bumper. The contact area is on the right side where the tin filler cover rises up. The same places on the left side is pretty close, but the right side is less than a 1/6" away from the bumper in the static position. On the right side, the tin cover and the bumper were hitting each other with any minor bump. An 1/8" of clearance would likely solve that rattle. The filler panel is attached to the body, normally, the loosening the bumper bolts, and adjusting the angle of the bumper brackets, then tighten the bolts, was all that was required to solve this issue. This car is not normal, since the frame was changed the bumper mount was altered. Those bumper brackets no longer bolt to the side of the frame. In this picture, the cut off piece on the right side is the original bumper bracket. The part directly to the left of it is the rear spring shackle mount on the new frame. That cut off bracket originally would have extended forward beyond the complete width of the shackle mount and would have bolted against the outer side of the original frame with two bolts in line with the rivet. Obviously, the original bumper bracket was not going to work on this frame. I don't have a picture of what they did, so I will try to explain it the best I can. The bumper brackets are the same on each side. That rivet in the bumper bracket (it holds the two pieces together) is about 6" from the rear most part of the rear bumper. That area is also where they cut the ends off of the rear "C" channel Dakota frame. Then they welded an end cap on the rear edge of the frame, on both sides. At the center of that end cap they drilled a 5/8" diameter hole. Then they took a 1/8" wall 1" x 2" rectangle tube, drilled a larger then 5/8" hole through both ends of the rectangle tubing that matched up with the holes in the end caps of the frame. After the oversized holes were drilled in the tube, those holes were sleeved so the tubing wouldn't crush when the mounting bolts were tightened. Then the tubing was bolted to the end of the frame and the bolts were tightened. Next the held the bumper in place, and welded the ends of the tubing to the sides of the bumper brackets, at the inside edge of the rivets you see in the picture. It was a great plan, except for 2 minor issues. 1) There is no bumper adjustment. None. 2) To remove the bumper, the tubing has to be cut. The bumper sits over the top of the tin filler panel, and both side wrap around the curved edge of the filler panel. With the bolts removed, the tubing has to drop down about an inch to clear the tin filler panel before it can come back and off of the top of the filler panel, but it can't come down because the top of the bumper curves over the top of the filler panel. The very thing it has to come down under, is the very thing that won't allow it to come down! The problem with the bumper and the filler panel is that the rear bumper it tweaked just a bit. In the first picture you can see a little bump at about the center of the top pf the bumper. The two wrap around edges of the bumper are not parallel with each other, the right side it tweaked down about a 1/2 farther then the left side is. I was able to use a floor jack and a block of 4x4 wood block to lift the front edge of the right side of the bumper up, then I took a nearly closed pipe wrench with a pipe over its handle and bent the v in the center of the bumper down, then pull up on that top lip as I moved towards the right. When things looked about correct, I loosened up the two bolts through the tubing, and shimmed the lower part under the tubing between the tubing and the frame end cap on the both sides of the frame. When I tightened the bolts the back edge of the bumper raised up, but the left side was too high, so I loosened up the bolts and removed the ship from the left side and tightened both sides again. I have clearance between the bumper and the filler all the way around except the very forward corner of the right side. I put the jack and block back under the front edge of the right side bumper, jacked it up as high as I could, put the pipe wrench back on the inner lip and tweaked it a bit more. Then I left the jack down and had clearance all around. I envision this fix as a temporary fix, but i know my mind will be running the current arrangement around in it until I came up with a permanent plan. The next thing I did was pulled the spare tire cover off. There are 3 screws that hold the cover down. The cover is 31" in diameter, but it was not all down against the floor pan. That area not normally making contact would make contact on bumps. I happened to have some generic rubber insulating bead that was just a few inches short of going all around the edge of the cover. I also had some 3m weather stripping glue here. I cleaned up the cover, and glued the 1/4" diameter bead to the outer contact surface of the lid and let it set up as I picked up my tools from the bumper job. After that, I installed the cover and bolted it back down. No more bouncing, no more rattle. 2 big ones gone on a day nothing else was going to get accomplished. I called it a day and came in and ****ed up AC the rest of the day. Might have to take a tour around town and identify another rattly I can attack tomorrow.
Just give me a couple minutes in the morning to buy stock first. I have a feeling you will use it on every part you R&I! https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/p/d/b40070582/
Following along reading, "Are we having fun ? This question came to my mind. Not being a smart ***, just curious. You and I have had some conversations about being similar type men and we are very different in this aging fun part of life. As always, interesting read, admire your never quit/give up work ethic.
Are we having fun yet? To be honest, some days are better then others. I don't mind the challenges most of the time, it keeps my mind involved. I do kind of enjoy the challenges, most days. My biggest problem is when I encounter things that have been done to something with out any regard to what might be required to repair it at a later date. I realize most people don't give any thought to that very often, and there are times when there appears to be no other way to do something, I've been there myself, a lot. Its the times when it appears someone did something just to make it more difficult for the next guy that rub me wrong pretty fast. I yell, scream, cuss, and grumble for a half hour, then I'm over it and its time to sit down and figure out a plan to move forward. There is an hour or so that isn't much fun. Another thing that irritates me pretty quickly would be interruptions, especially if I trying to figure out how to move forward from a mess. A simple interruption can set the process back a half hour or more. I have a one track mind, I do not mul***ask at all. I tell people my mind is like the old phone switchboards from back in the 50s. When the subject gets changed, I have to unplug the old thing, plug into the new thing, and bring myself up to speed on the new thing. Then when that is done, I have to unplug from that thing and plug back into what I was doing before, then bring myself back up to speed. Give me a hard challenge to fix something that was stupidly done, then interrupt me every 15 minutes for a couple of hours, I promise neither of us will be having much fun. But if you give me that same project and give me uninterrupted hour to figure is out, we may both enjoy the process. On a side note, my long awaited fuel gauge came in this morning. I decided this would be a good day to install it, and then attack the wiring. I'm happy to report that the new gauge is installed, I don't know of it works or not, though, I pretty much have most of the wiring cut loose. The guy I bought the car from, and his buddy, installed the new wiring harness. I don't think wiring was one of the strongest areas of expertise the good old boys possessed. The guys attached enough wires from the fuse panel to the old round ignition switch to make the car run. The ignition switch had 4 posts on it, one was a start post with one wire attached, another was a battery post with 3 wires attached to it and an ignition post with two wires attached. The ignition switch also had a pole to attach wires for things in the accessory position, they elected not to attach any wires to that post. they had a bundle of pretty heavy gauge wires zip tied up under the dash that all had power to them whenever the key was on. From the time I figured all that out, I've been a bit uneasy about the wiring, but the car did run and move. Changing the fuel gauge was part of that deal, the new fuel gauge they installed in the car didn't match the sending unit in the gas tank they installed in the car. Since I had to pull the dash insert out to change the fuel gauge, it is a good time to correct the wiring mess. I was doing OK, actually making progress with the challenge. The outside temp had reached 94 degrees, but I was in the garage with a fan moving the air. Then, all of a sudden the interruptions came, 3 phone calls, each 15 minutes apart, all trying to lend my business money. The first two were automated calls, I hate those. The last call was a real person, after the 3rd time telling him NO, I lost it. Suddenly it wasn't being fun. It was time to call it a day. I can plan the wire routing in the AC.
Yesterday was a ball of fun... I had a stack of papers I compiled the day before with which wires were going where. I collected my 1990 Dakota factory service manual, and my stack of papers and spent all afternoon sitting in the AC, at the dining room table. I drew pictures of the fuse box and where the wires from it went, and what I thought each wire was suppose to do. I drew pictures of the ignition switch and identified which terminals had continuity with the switch in every position, and which did not. Then I consulted the manual to compare what I was seeing. Then I developed a plan. Pic 1) I don't know how clearly these pictures on my drawings are going to show up, but this could give you an idea of my thought process. The diagram at the top of the page is what the manual says the wires attached to the switch should be. I used the numbering system I have developed so I can keep the wire positions correct. The manual shows the 6 terminals on the right side turned sideways, and was looking at the wiring from the plug end that would plug into the switch. All that messed me up a lot. The middle section shows where the factory wires were connected to the switch, identified by my numbering. That helped a lot. The lower diagram is how the switch is laid out, looking at the terminals on the switch, instead of looking at the wire blocks I don't have. The boxed off section on the lower right corner is how I concluded the wires should be connected to the switch, based on the continuity through the switch with the switch in each position (not considering the accessory position on the switch). Today I was going to execute that plan. I started by labeling each wire. I determined I needed to do this with actual 12 volt power, and that at each step of the process I should do***ent which terminal actually had power in each position on the switch, and at the fuse box as well, then add the next wire and repeat the same process. This would be done with a test light that was connected to ground. This was the plan, we will see how much changes when actual voltage shows up! If you can read it, you will see in the ares where all the green lines and arrows are, that there are a few wires that i already know needed to be rerouted from the current wiring job. The first step was to put the only battery hot wire I had to what I determined was the correct terminal on the switch. With it connected to #7 terminal on the switch, and I connected the negative battery cable. The blue writing tells the story. With the battery hot wire plugged into the #7 terminal, Terminal #8 was also battery hot with the switch in the off position. Terminals #2, #3, #6, and #8 were hot with the switch in the "on" position. Terminals #1, #6 and #8 were hot when the switch was held in the crank position. Terminals #2, #3 and #8 were hot in the accessory position. Conclusions: All of these aligned with the continuity test performed yesterday. Terminal #8 has to be a battery hot power to the fuse panel, its the only wire that has power in every switch position. Terminal 6 has to be the ignition power directly from the switch, its the only terminal that is hot only in "crank" and "on" positions. Terminal #1 has to be ignition switch power to the starter relay, it is the only terminal that is powered only in the crank position. Terminals #2 and #3 are only powered in "on" and "accessory" positions, can be used supply power to things wanted while the switch was in either "on" or "accessory" positions. (terminal #2 was not used in the factory diagram). The fuse box has 2 columns of fuses, with 7 fuse positions on each column. two of those fuse positions on the right column do not have either fuse connection in them, those places are for adding extra fuses if needed. The two "extra" fuse spaces would be for fuse #12 and #13. With each column, the left side of the fuse goes to what ever the fuse is protecting, and the right side is where the power comes from. The top diagram shows the fuse layout and on the right side, where the power for each fuse comes from. On the right side of the right column there are three 10 gauge wire connections. The top red 10 gauge connector is labeled "Battery Feed to switch" (this wire was taped on the end and looped to the under side of the dash on the original build). This wire is what powered everything that is suppose to have battery power when the switch is off. It needs to connect with the #8 terminal on the switch. The top 4 fuses on the right column are powered by this wire, and are battery hot all the time. those 4 fuses are #8 horn relay, #9 brake lights, #10 (I have incorrectly marked as acc power) but is actually the headlight switch power, and #11 hazard light flasher unit. The 2nd 10 gauge wire is yellow. Its labeled as "Power Feed" and supplied battery power from the Feed wire above (it goes to the ignition switch as well). The 3rd 10 gauge wire just loops from the power side of the left side column, and only supplies power the #14 fuse. On the left column, power feed (right) side of the fuse there is a 14 gauge red wire labeled "accessory" that goes to the switch. So back on actual 12 volt testing. The red 10G wire from the fuse box is plugged into terminal #8 on the ignition switch. Switch in the off position Nothing powered. Switch in he "on" position switch terminals #2, #3, and #6 have 12 volts (carried over from above, nothing new) In accessory position, terminals #2 and #3 have voltage (same as above, nothing new). But in the fuse box, fuses #8, #9, #1, and #11 all have power. As does the 10 gauge yellow wire, and the horn relay The yellow wire from the fuse box is plugged into the #4 switch position, (in continuity testing it had continuity with other terminals that could provide accessory power). 12 volt test, off terminal #5 had power (#5 was not used in the factory wiring) Switch in the "on" position, switch terminals #2, #3, #5, #6, #10, #11 had 12 volts (#5, #10 and #11 are new). Switch in the "accessory" position #2, #3, and #5 have 12 volts (#5 is new). No new fuses. The 14 gauge "accessory" wire from the fuse box plugged into the #3 switch connection, the voltage test showed: Switch in the off position terminal #5 had 12 volts (nothing new). Switch in the on position, terminals #2, #5, #6, #10, and #11 had 12 volts (nothing new). Switch in the "accessory" position terminals #2 and #5 both had 12 volts (nothing new). All of the fuses were powered. The car starts and runs, all the fuses are powered, ans the things you still want powered when the switch is in the off positions are now powered. I swapped a few power sources so the correct things were powered by the correct sources. The 12 gauge labeled as "heater" will now be for the blower motor, when ever that comes. the fuse has been pulled, the wire coiled out of the way. The speedometer that used to be powered by the "heater" wire is now powered by fuse #5, as is the power to the cigar lighter that now only supports the back up camera. The EFI system requires an always on power source, before it only had ignition on power, now it has a dedicated always on fuse #9. I need to puck up a flasher can for the hazard lights, and connect that to the hazard wire on the turn signal switch for the hazard flashers to work. I also need to order a voltage reducer for the wipers. I have run a new ground wire for the wiper motor. I have the yellow 18g power wire for the radio acc power, with the fuse #1 pulled. I have the green 14g power wire for the hazard power, with the fuse #11 pulled. I have the pink 18g power wire for the heater blower power, with fuse #7 pulled. I have the blue 18g power wire for an open space acc power, with fuse # 6 pulled. I have the blue/white strip 18g power wire for an open acc power with fuse #14 pulled. The above wires are looped together under the dash. Everything functions except the new gas gauge reads empty when there is about a 1/2 tank of gas in it. I have power to it. I need to check to see of there is power to the sending unit. I was having fun, until the gas gauge thing.
Looks like you have most of it sorted out. I’m sure you checked it out but is the tank/sending unit grounded good? Dan
I believe the gauge is bad. Checking at the wire connection where the pigtail plugs into the gauge, I have 12 volts on the power wire. I have a good ground, and an ohm reading between the wire from the sender to ground reads 23 ohms (when I took the ohm readings to get the correct gauge, the 9" deep tank had a gas level of 6", or about 3/4 tank full of gas). The gauge range is 73 ohms empty, and 10 ohms full. The gauge, when the wires are connected to the gauge, reads empty. The gauge light works, and the pigtail snaps into place. When I tried to contact the seller, the link circled back to the same picture, there is no place to type a message. I left him a bad review, lets see what happens, and how fast. I'm not really expecting any response until Monday. In other news, we took the wagon to a fast food place to eat tonight. On the way home, we got caught in a fast moving thunderstorm. We closed the windows, and the cowl vent 3/4 closed (needed some air flow to keep the windows from fogging up) and headed for home (no wipers or defrost yet). Literally, 2 blocks from home, sitting at a red light, the car just shuts down! The headlights work, but no crank, or anything else! My wife and I pushed the car around the corner (its really easy to push by the way), and into a Walgreens parking lot. A guy I know followed us into the parking lot and offered help. At our request, he gave us the 2 block long ride home, instead of us walking in the hard rain. At home I grabbed a test light, a box of fuses, a 1/2" socket with the ratchet, and my wife's car. The plan was to drop the column (three 1/2" nuts), and check for power at the switch, then check for blown fuses. Right after I got there the rain pretty much stopped, so I dropped the column quickly. Everything at the switch has power, including the starter relay wire when the switch is in the crank position. I bolted the column back up and was about to go to the other side of the car to check the fuses. About that time the rain let loose again. I sat in my wife's car about 15 minutes, but the rain was not letting up. I went home and called AAA to come and haul the car home. I know the owner of that AAA towing company, I used to do welding for him, he has towed home my last 3 hot rods at least once. The car is drip drying in the garage right now, while the rain and thunder continues. At this point, I'm thinking the relays got water soaked, and maybe blew a couple of fuses or relays. I'm hoping that was all that happened. Then it would be a couple of fuses, and rain protection for the electronics to add to the things that need changed list. What ever it is, its going to wait until at least Monday, then I will do what ever I need to solve this issue.
Well, the weekend away sure helped my at***ude. As expected, the shutdown was caused by a blown fuse. That most likely was my fault. When changing the wiring, the EFI was suppose to have a battery hot power supply. The way it was wired, nothing had a battery hot until the key was turned on. I got that mess all sorted out, but I didn't have a battery hot power supply for the EFI. I did have a blank space in the fuse box that was battery hot. I just pulled the power for the EFI off the fused side of the box. I think maybe the 10 A fuse there was there may have been too light, I replaced it with a 25 amp fuse. I may have to pull that battery voltage for the EFI though a fusible link directly from the battery. I replaced the fuse, and the car fires right up. I did look into the possibility that the fuse blew because some of the electrical components under the dash got water logged with the fresh air cowl scoop partly open during the rain. The computer for the EFI is attached to the firewall, so it is actually 2 or more inches forward of the cowl scoop, and technically should be water proof. They do have it installed upside down, so the wire ends of the plug ins are facing up instead of downward. I think I should be able to simply turn it around to the proper orientation, if there isn't a problem with the length of the wiring. I'm also considering just wrapping the electrical connections so water can't get to it. The other area of concern is there are 4 relays hinging from under the dash brackets that could be in line with water that might blow in. I believe I can remove the mounting screws, and hang a plastic 'curtain" between the relay brackets and the bracket they are mounted to. that should eliminate most of the chance of water flooding. I also got a response from the company that sold me the fuel gauge. For some strange reason, before I was not able to type anything in the contact the seller until I gave them bad feedback. Now I am able to respond to them. Amazing! They have informed my the problem was completely on my end. According to them if my fuel sending unit has one wire to it, I need to make sure the sending unit has a good ground. If my sending unit has 2 wires, I needed to make sure the sender ground was attached to the same ground as the sending unit. My sending unit has two wires. The gauge is grounded to the firewall, and the sending unit is grounded to the frame, but since he insisted connecting the two grounds to the same point would solve my problem, I'll humor them. I ran a new wire from the sending unit ground all the way to the gauge. I spliced the ground wire on the gauge to the ground wire from the sending unit. Then I tested for voltage and ground, just like I did before I added the wire. Everything works at the end of the pigtail. I plugged it into the gauge, installed the instrument cluster in the dash, and started the car. The fuel gauge reads empty. Originally, I installed the new gauge with the ground using the same ground as the other gauges, so to eliminate that being the possible problem, I made a specific ground for the sender and the fuel only gauge grounds. The gauge still reads empty. At the pigtail plug for the gauge, I have 12.54 volts. That voltage is between the power wire on the pigtail to the ground wire on the pigtail. With the power off I get 43 ohms between the wire from the sending unit to the ground, also on the pigtail. When I plug the pigtail in, and turn on the light, the gauge lights up. The gauge still reads empty. I recorded al of this. My last sentience was "What now?" I will see how long it takes to respond this time.
The EFI I have in my Buick is a repurposed 1990s GM throttle body. As yours does, it requires an always hot , direct to the battery feed. It was SUPPLIED WITH A 30 AMP FUSE. Just saying. Ben
The EFI on my 3.9 is port injected (97 Magnum 3.9). The battery hot wire for the aftermarket (Hot Wire Automotive) EFI harness is probably a 14 gauge wire. I connected to it with a blue **** connector. I did replace the blown 10 amp fuse with a 25 amp fuse. The next reality is if it blows the 25 amp fuse, I will probably run a dedicated 12 gauge with a fusible link directly from the battery. I did get a response from the people from the gauge company. He and his coworkers still believe my wiring is at fault. They sent me the same wire connection information as the did the first time, and wanted to know if that was the way the wiring was done. I used their working to tell them that was the way the wiring was done, and that the gauge was defective. Tomorrow, when they tell me the same thing, maybe I will see if I can send them a picture of the ground wire. They are quickly building up to a really bad review and I will get Ebay involved. I paid with a credit card, I will win.
Gene, I feel for you. Going in and following someone who couldn't follow basic instructions on wiring makes you want to go in with cutters at least half the time! I would suggest for your own sanity that a long piece of wire with a fuse that can easily be replaced can sub in for a Power Probe. Size the wire big, but swap out the fuse for the intended circuit to test. Connect it to battery power and feed what you need to skip the rest of the mystery first. As for the turn signals, I have beat my head a few times, and it's often either the bulb or the ground, which can be bulb to socket, socket to ground or the ground wire connection. This is where that wire can be connected to the battery ground and touched to the bulb and socket. I'd get at least a couple pairs of bulbs in the packaging for the glovebox, just in case. I've gotten out of tickets by swapping in front of the law.
I believe I pretty much have my wiring sorted out, the issue that caused the tow home was just a blown 10 amp fuse that probably should have been a much heavier fuse. I have replaced it with a 25 amp fuse. The blown fuse could easily have just been because the fuse was too light to begin with, I don't think I even paid much attention how low of amps it was actually rated at. When the 10 amp fuse blew and shut down the EFI, it had been in continuous operation for probably 15 or more minutes, which would have been the first time it ran that long with this wiring set up. It just happened that it was raining hard, and the cowl vent was partially open (the first real hard rain we have been caught in while driving the car), I ***umed the problem was water caused, but water may not have had anything to do with the fuse blowing. In its original configuration in the Dakota truck, the EFI battery power would have been pulled directly off the battery with a fusible link. Lazy hit me hard on this one, I didn't have a 12 gauge eye electrical end (to connect with the battery cable), I didn't have a fusible link, and I didn't have a long enough 12 gauge wire to reach the distance. I just wanted to make it run for the night. The fuse bank I pulled off of was the battery hot feed to the fuse box, from the ignition switch battery hot terminal. The horn, the headlights, the 4 way flasher, and the brake lights are all powered by this fuse bank. The brake lights are currently powered through the ignition side (and I am OK with that). I simply spliced the EFI wire to the brake light fused side, not even thinking about the amps of that fuse. The challenge I'm having with the fuel gauge does not have anything to do with the vehicle wiring, it is the gauge only wiring. The gauge has 4 wires. A red wire (power supply), an orange wire (gauge backlight), a blue wire (the instructions and the company say is the gauge ground wire) (most fuel gauges use the blue wire for the sender), and a black wire (the instructions, and the company say is the sender wire) (which most fuel gauges use as a ground). The company insists I have it wired wrong because the gauge is not seeing the sender. (I too suspect it probably is wired incorrectly), but its wired the way they have instructed me to do so, on 3 different occasions now. They tell me they are the gauge manufacturer. Now they tell me that the 2 wire sending unit (I have) needs to have its ground wire connected directly to the blue wire on the gauge, then those two wires need to be connected to a good ground. I bought 28' of wire today, disconnected the sending unit ground wire from the frame (as instructed), and connected it to the new wire. I ran that wire from the tank area all the way up to the gauge and connected it to the the blue wire from the gauge (as instructed), then connected both of them to a good ground (the metal dash frame). At this point, I am waiting to see what the company I bought the gauge from wants me to do next, before I turn them into ebay and my credit card. If they expect me to send the defective gauge back to them, I will switch the black wire to ground and the blue wire to the sending unit, just to see if their wiring diagram and their repeated directions are wrong. This is sooo much fun.... I picked up a Map gas torch today. Tomorrow I intend to jack up the back end of the car, heat up the tail pipes, and beat the ****... I mean, beat a flat spot in them with my air chisel, just above where they are hitting the leaf springs. Maybe they will quit bouncing off the leaf springs then. I'm thinking I should be able to gain another inch, maybe more (may depend on my mood), of spring travel before the springs hit the tail pipes afterwards. I suspect that may well be a stress relief project!
A proper length of 2x4 from the top of the pipe to the floor will provide a handy steady rest! Might even cut a vee notch. Otherwise, you will be contorting to hold the pipe steady and then swinging a hammer (or air chisel) upward!
WOW! 11 am and I have already completed my 2 jobs on the wagon for the day! I attacked the tailpipes first, at 9 am it was already near 84 degrees. I marked both tailpipes for the area to abuse. Then I jacked up the back end of the car so the rear end was hanging and put the frame on jack stands. I recruited a short piece of square tubing (this was a welding shop, such things are still hanging around) that was just the right size to wedge between the tailpipe and the frame. I started on the drivers side, which was the worst offender. When I started, my index finger barely fit between the tailpipe and the leaf spring with weight on the springs. With the suspension hanging, I had about 4" of clearance between the pipe and the offending leaf spring. I inserted a long blunt ended chisel into my air chisel. Then I used a Map gas torch to heat the bottom of the pipe, and air hammered between my marks. The non rusted tailpipe bent much easier then I expected, but I did need to heat it a couple of times to bend the entire area between my marks. I did a test raising of the rear end enough to lift the car off the stands, that showed a major improvement, but I was not done yet on side one. Another issue with that side was that the tail pipe was very close to the car body where the pipe exited from the car. While I was there, I wanted more clearance between the body and the tailpipe as well. With the wedge still between the pipe and the frame, I placed a heavy wall 1" square tube between the axle and the pipe. Then I recruited a heavy wall round tube to insert into the end of the tailpipe. The tailpipe has a chrome tip, which I removed. Then I applied heat to the tailpipe, just outside of the spring, and jacked the rear end up tight against the spring and pulled the end of the tail pipe down. That gained me a bit more then an inch between the tail pipe and the body. Then I let the rear hang, removed all the blocking from the driver side, and moved it to the other side of the car. This side of the car had more clearance between the spring and the tailpipe, and more clearance between the tailpipe and the body, but I was going to make more clearance between the spring and the pipe. With the same tube that was wedged between the frame and the pipe on the other side, in place on this side, and the rear suspension hanging, I started heating the pipe above the leaf spring. When the pipe was hot, I air hammered the dent in the pipe between the marks I made on the pipe. This side went even easier then the other side went! It was almost like I had experience doing this... Again, the clearance was checked by jacking up the rear axle until it lifted the car off the jack stands. I was happy. I removed all the wedges and tubing. The tailpipe to body clearance was good. I removed the jack stands and set the car back on its tires. I bounced the car as hard as I could, and nothing made contact. This picture is after the tailpipe modification (I failed to get before pictures). That clearance measures 1.25 inches, almost 3x what was originally there. This picture is the p***enger side. It had more clearance to begin with, but this clearance also measures about 1.25" or almost 3x as much as was there before. I didn't take any pictures of the body to tailpipe clearance, but with the chrome tip on both sides, there is between 1.25" and 1.5" of clearance between the body and the tailpipes. A ride through town will verify there is now enough clearance, or if I need to go back in and make a bit more. The second project on the wagon for today was to respond to the email I received over night, concerning the fuel gauge. Once again, they informed me the problem was with my wiring. Once again they told me how to connect the sender ground wire to the blue wire on the gauge, then connect that to a good ground and the gauge will work. This time I told them that I cut the sender ground wire from where it was grounded on the frame. Then I had to connect it to a new wire, which I ran from the tank area to the gauge area. Then I connected the new wire to the blue wire, and then connected both of them to the same ground. Just as they have instructed me. The gauge still reads empty. Then I asked them if they were sure that the black wire was suppose to be connected to the sender wire, and the blue wire was suppose to be connected to the ground like they have instructed me, and I have done? We will see how they respond tonight.
Great work, Gene! Glad to have it be fairly simple, even if you are laying there wondering why they didn't do it right to start. @Sharpone he's working with an electrical warranty item. He mentioned in a past post he's not going to risk it until the final results of their "Tech service" and "Warranty dept." I think you can guess what my opinion of those quotes are. Gene is being careful for now.
At this point, I am jumping through a lot of hoops just to get a $25 fuel gauge to work. I believe the two wires are probably reversed from the way they should be connected, but these guys are supposed to be the gauge manufacturers. If they produced the gauge to operate with the wiring set up this way, then the gauge itself is defective and they should replace it. With this last response, I did ask them if they were sure the ground wires and the wire to the sending unit were not reversed. At any rate, its wired the way they tell me it needs to be wired and the gauge doesn't work. Either replace the gauge, correct the wiring diagram, or refund my money. That will be my next response.
The Jalopy Journal
