Paddy399

Hello all! The title speaks for itself. I had found another thread where someone was working on a 88 with the same issue. Someone mentioned a test where you disconnect the sending unit in the trunk, and the gauge should go to Full and if you touch the lead to ground it should go to Empty. When I have the gauge disconnected, it doesn’t move from E. So instead of touching the lead to ground (because it’s already on E) I used my meter and found I have continuity from the lead from the gauge to ground. Is it safe to assume that the wire to the gauge is grounded somewhere and causing my fault, or is it the gauge itself?

nsnarsk65cutlass

Disconnect the gauge if it still has continuity to ground it's the wiring and not the gauge.

oldcutlass

Its possible the wire is shorted to ground, disconnect it at the gauge to check.

Paddy399

Thanks for the advice, makes complete sense.

Paddy399

Update: Disconnected the wire from gauge to sending unit and no continuity to ground, so my wiring seems fine. While I was in the trunk I decided to also test the sending unit side of the connector and I do have continuity to ground on that side.

Ugh, I was really hoping I wouldn’t have to replace the gauge.

oldcutlass

Do you have 12v at the other terminal for the gauge?

Paddy399

I assume I have power coming into the gauge. There is an 8 pin plug that plugs into the back of the PCB and everything else in the dash works. I’m assuming one pin of the plug is power, that then get distributed through the PCB, then back out one of the 7 other pins to their respective switch/sensor.

I also know what happens when you assume...