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Electrical help needed, gauge problem

To: datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net
Subject: Electrical help needed, gauge problem
From: Alex Avery <aavery@rica.net>
Date: Sat, 16 Mar 2002 11:48:25 -0500
I've been puzzling over this problem for a while: Fuel gauge and
temperature gauge don't work properly.  When I turn the ignition on, the
fuel gauge went all the way past full, then slowly dropped all the way past
empty and stayed there.  Temp gauge didn't do anything.  

Some mentioned the relay on the steering column, so I took that off, took
it apart, cleaned the contacts and separated them seeing as they were in
constant contact.  Well, now the fuel gauge doesn't even move, so I assume
the contacts were supposed to be in light contact.  Is that right?  I don't
understand this relay, but I'm pretty ignorant about electrical stuff.
Before I took it off and rebent the spring contact, I thought I'd ask how
it is supposed to work.

Some mentioned that the ground could be bad and to check the ground on the
temp sensor housing--something about a wire or gasket or something on the
housing contacting block.  I don't see a ground wire/strap or anything like
it on the thermostat/sensor housing. Am I missing it or is it missing and
should be rebuilt?

Also, horn doesn't work.  Could this be related? 

History: I accidently hooked the battery backwards several months ago which
may have precipitated the problem, however, the ground strap broke around
that same time, and fried the throttle cable.  I rebuilt the throttle cable
(*bike cable worked great and I was even able to reuse all fittings, etc)
and rewired the ground and double-grounded the block to the frame.  Have I
missed a fried ground wire for the gauge cluster? Please help--everything
else is running great and I want to get the car inspected so my father (and
I) can legally drive the car.  I can't do that without the horn and I'd
prefer to have the gauges working properly, which they did prior to having
dash recovered. 

Any help greatly appreciated.  Also, please cc responses to my email
address <aavery@rica.net>

Alex Avery, Staunton, VA 
'69 2000, '78 280Z

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