[Chartoo]

hi all workin throught getting my xc project on the road. It was an unfinished project i bought so u always finding little suprises. got it started up the other day after a long time and noticed that the temp,fuel and oil gauges dont work. The iginition lights and dash lights work and the taco works but i cant get the three gauges working.

Looking at the pics attached the sender seems connected and so does the temp gauge but they still dont work. I traced them and they looked connected. Where do you supose i go from here?

 

[351cid]

for all three of them to be not working i would start looking behind the dash.

maybe a wire off in there.

lonnnnng time since i have seen the back of an XC r/pac dash so i cant go into much detail, but i would be checking all the conections on the back of dash, check for a good earth etc.

would be awfully unlucky to have three senders not working.

 

[RPO-083]

More than likely is the "voltage reducer" (guages don't operate on 12V) on the rear of the guages. Fairly sure on an XC it is a seperate unit, white in colour.

 

[Unregistered]

That temp sender is in the wrong place and probably the wrong sender. Should be on the block under the top radiator hose. Your's appears to be in a manifold port used for anti-pollution vacuum tree.

 

[Chartoo]

cheers my mechanic mate and he said it might be the voltage reducer also.
If it is where would i buy a replacement? Dicksmith ...coventries

 

[Chartoo]

Had a bit more of a look around last nite. The dash seems in good condition on the back with no cracks or fraied wires.

My mechanic mate told me of a test for the gauges. He said to take of the temp sender wire off and put it on the carb and the turn on the dash. This made the temp gauge slowly go to hot. This shows me ,i think, that the gauge works and is connected right but that it isnt recieving power or a signal. So it must be the voltage reducer right. However i cant find it on the back of the dash. Is this reducer somewhere else?
The only thing i can find is a little battery looking thing between to bits of metal. See second pic. Is this what i need to replace? Coventries dont stock the part any more and that guy told me the reducer was part of the fuel sender!!!!! Any help apreciated!

 

[351cid]

if your temp gauge is working when earthed out then maybe it is your sender ?
did you try the oil gauge the same way.

with the oil gauge you need a sender to suit a gauge not a light. the sender for an oil light will not work a gauge.

i think you can test the fuel gauge the same way but i have never had to do it so you might want to check first.


that thing on the back of your dash looks like a diode

 

[RPO-083]

Well, I will stand corrected on this one. I was sure that XC ran an external reducer.....

Anyway, yours is in the lower guage with 4 terminals on it.

But!!!! If the guage went up with the wire earthed, then the reducer MUST be OK, and you have crook sender/s...... Whilst it is unlikely that all are stuffed, I have had this before on neglected vehicles.

 

[Chartoo]

hmm really confused myself now. pluged the dash back, tunred the key to on and put a test lamp on the 3 gauges. All pulsed on and off like an indicator but the indicator wasnt on. Think i best leave if for a auto electrician

 

[RPO-083]

hmm really confused myself now. pluged the dash back, tunred the key to on and put a test lamp on the 3 gauges. All pulsed on and off like an indicator but the indicator wasnt on. Think i best leave if for a auto electrician

The pulsing is from the voltage regulator. It is sort of like a circuit breaker that constantly goes on and off, and by doing this the voltage drops from 12V to about 5V (from memory).

 

[Peter_Scott]

I also have the three gauge on then off problem.
They can be fine - then all three go to zero. Sometimes they work perfect - other times all three will drop to zero.
I have an XC Fairmont.
Other odd things. I had a poor running V8 and was troubleshooting. Hard to start - missing while running. It started stalling as well. I could watch the tacho and it would start going erractic jumping to zero (engine still idling ok no matter the tacho indication) - when it go to zero the engine would stall. I ran a line from the battery to the coil direct (electronic distributor). Car ran great. Best it has ever ran. I turned the car off and it kept running - naturally.
BUT I had the key in my hand and the tacho was still working and the heater fan still running. How odd I thought. Then the tacho stopped and the heater fan went off. That's better. Went to get out to disconnect the wire from the battery to the coil (keys now in pocket) and hey presto the fan came on again and the tacho started working. Then off. Then on again. Then off. About 20 seconds between the on and off cycle. Very odd I thought.
Anyway the power supply to the coil seems ok - I get the full 12.5 volts. The Earth though to the neg side of the coil will only give me 11.3 volts when used instead of the battery earth. So looks like I might have a bad earth to the coil pack?
Beats me I'm only guessing. There is no earth strap to the rocker cover that I can see - so I'll get one of those too.
I have the steering and ignition dissemmbled - nothing strikes me as out of order, but how would I know.
I'm going to take the dash down to an instrument repair place to get it checked out first I guess. I was thinking of running a new earth to the coil .
The car was so great with the wire to the coil direct from the battery - I want to get that feeling back again.

 

[xcgxl]

This happened to me and it was just a dodgy fuse.

 

[xcgxl]

This happened to me and it was just a dodgy fuse.

 

[northey]

peter scott,
yours is almost certain to be an earth problem.

chartoo, Get a good earth first to the temp gauge. The reducer does produce a blinking effect - also one side of gauge the blinking light is not as bright as other side. If the earth doesn't fix it an auo elec would be a good place to go.

cheers

 

[Weazle]

Hello,

Most cars have the reducer in the fuel gauge. If the fuel / temp sender being grounded makes the gauge move, then it could be the senders. These can easily be tested with a multi-meter, as well as the voltage on the back of the gauges. It would seem unlikely all the senders have failed.

Weazle

 

[Chartoo]

The float on the on my fuel guage sender had just filled up and wouldnt float any more. So now the fuel gauge works but the others arent working .

I ended up running a second capilliary oil pressure and water temp gauges to be safe when runing the car around and will get on to the other guages soon. too much to do to little time but thansk eveyone for the advice