tgilligan

Hi All,
Need some help. Fuel gauge was in perfect working order as of yesterday. I pulled the gauge this morning to replace the bulbs on the back as they were all blown. After reinstalling, I noticed my fuel needle is stuck at 1/4 tank and I'm absolutely positive there is 3/4 of a tank in there. Tank, sending unit, etc., are all new and have been working fine for several months. I must have done something this morning when I pulled it. What I assume is when I disconnected the electrical pin connector, it bent/snapped one of the prongs. I noticed it after I took it back apart to try and diagnose the problem. At the risk of asking a dumb question, I'm not familiar with what pin does what but could this be the culprit? If so, i'll have to find a new gauge. I put a pic of the back of the gauge below.

On a semi-related topic, while going through the dash to make sure I didn't have any loose wires, I found this socket/connector but have not idea what it is or goes to? Any guesses?

D. Yaros

Could that munged pin be the problem? Yes!

I wonder if it would work after being be straightened and soldered? Certainly worth a try.

As for the bulb socket, to where do the wires go? Wild guess it may be for the emergency brake light or a courtesy lamp.

What is all that gunk inside of it?

tgilligan

I might try the soldering route. As for the socket, there isn't much slack to it and it's on the left side of the dash behind the air duct and the light switch. Found it by chance when I reaching around back there changing some other bulbs. No idea if it's snagged up in there and goes somewhere else. No clue what inside there, looks as if it was a bulb at one point that possibly snapped off but can't be sure.

joe_padavano

The socket is for the under-dash courtesy light. Looks like the glass part of the bulb has been broken off and the metal base is still in the socket. It should snap into a bracket on the bottom edge of the lower dash.

tgilligan

Thanks Joe.

Fun71

It's been successfully done by a lot of us. Someone (I don't remember who) posted pictures of the process using a small diameter screw through the circuit board and into the hollow pin cavity, then soldering to make electrical connection. Try searching for that post, or hopefully someone remembers it and can post a link to it.

Dave26

If the pin can't be saved, I have used a 2mm X 12mm bolt that I found at my local Ace Hardware in the specialty bolt drawers.

tgilligan

Update: I was able to snag a very good gauge from Oldspackrat (thanks Scott!) and went to put the new gauge in and noticed I'm having some sort of grounding/electrical issue. When the turn the key to the on position, the gauge went up to the right level but when I put pressure on my headlight switch, the fuel needle dropped and rose again when I stop touching the headlight switch. When I pulled the headlight switch to check it out, there was a wire that was cut and someone previously tried to just electrical tape it. I reconnected the wire the proper way but have no idea what the piece is. It was a capsule connected between the switch and the back of the bezel and it's in the picture highlighted below. It has a spring loaded pin in it that the wire came from. Any idea what this is?

Has anyone else experienced any weird grounding issues like this? I'm going to check some fuses another bare wire I found wound up making some sparks when I moved the harness around so one or more may have popped, knocking out my glove box and courtesy lights.

allyolds68