LEAKOIL Forum

WideFive wrote:A solution to a problem that never existed.

I usually grab the regulators off of later bug or bay fuel gauges.

For some reason or another I think we've had this discussion before...66 67 the transition from 6 to 12 volt. guages and kinzel clock exactly the same other than the addition of a resister between connections this can be found until these components were changed completely.

I do like your fix Bruce clean and no need to rip anything apart..

WideFive wrote:A solution to a problem that never existed.

It existed between my ears.

Well, my freaking fuel gauge is on the fritz again. It seems like this is a perennial problem with all of my older cars- if it works you don't bet on it being accurate and more often than not they don't work.

Well, let do some diagnostics before slamming parts. The gauge barely moves when I turn the key on and stays at the bottom even when the tank is filled. Let's see what the resistance of the sender is.

Hmm 71.2 ohms, which means the float is on the bottom. Not another sunk float?! This will be the third in two years.

Let's make sure the gauge is working correctly. I have a variable poterntiometer that I use for testing fuel gauges, it goes from 0 ohms to 300 ohms.

I hook it up to the sender wire and ground and give it a twist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI5Gx3xf1R8

It works great, so the phucking sender took a dump again.

I've tried fixing them in the past with limited success. This sender is the same PN as the one in my Ghia and I've put two in there in the last couple of years, but those are easy to change......

Is the gas gauge measuring voltage?

I had a similar problem with the 66 Westy gas gauge (6volt). I cleaned all the connections and that seemed to correct the problem.

Now having a problem with the 68 SC (12volt) not working at all. Stay tuned.

The gas gauge measures resistance in the sending unit by passing a small amount of voltage through it, the sending unit measures about 0 ohms when full and about 70-80 ohms when empty (IIRC). To answer your question, yes, it's measuring return voltage but that's not how this circuit is normally described. My bus has a new harness and sender plus I remember cleaning the spot where the ground wire screwed on. Could there be a bad connection back there? Possibly, but unlikely. Your 66 Westy probably has an older harness, sender and ground so it's more likely to have a bad connection.

Sunk floats are a pattern failure on these repop senders, the last 2 I got from KGPR and this one came from WCM, but I'm betting the same mfr made all of them. I've tried fixing the OEG senders in the past with only fair results, that stupid hair wire and my big clumsy fingers made difficult partners. One I fixed in the Ghia only lasted a couple of tankfuls before the wire broke again. Soldering the wire to the terminal proved to be quite difficult.



On the positive side, the heater in this bus is hot enough to roast you out. On the highway I can't hold my hand in front of the front heater vent (approx. temp 140ish), have to crack the vent window and it gets really warm up front. I'm a freeze baby and that was about 32F ambient. Underneath I put double layers of insulation on the long tube (one layer of bubble wrap/foil from Home Depot and the OEG stuff over that), and slightly modified the plastic flex tubes for better flow. They came from WW with a big coil spring inside wrapped with Fiberglas insulation that restricted the ID of the tube cutting down airflow. I removed the FG and put the same bubble wrap stuff in there and the spring back in, you could see better through it when done. There's no "heater log" in the back of this bus, just a big open hole under the rear seat. The phukking heat just blasts out of that hole and can be felt up front. If I put the pedal pan on it might even be better......

On your SC, unhook the sender wire from the back of the gauge and ground the gauge terminal. With the key on, the gauge should peg full.

TRL wrote:Hey Bruce, I hope your aware that the H30/31 carb has a different vacuum signal and may not advance properly. Otherwise the motor looks great!

I took TRL's advice, bought some 30PICTs at the last few swap meets, went through the pile, took the one with the best throttle shaft bushings and general appearance and went through it. It does seem to run better, now I have to hunt down one of those elusive '66-7 Beetle distributors that the Samba gang says work best with this carb.

Note to self: When sitting crosslegged on a creeper behind the bus wearing shorts, do NOT run your phucking knee into the muffler. (again.)



While waiting for 6V parts, I decided to refinish my workbench. It's an old bowling alley chunk, probably maple about 2" thick. Belt sand, D/A, and 4 coats of poly for that wet look. I'll probably skip the wet sand, buff, and wax. I figured if "L" can do it, so can I.

The Samba gang (including Glenn, "Mr 010") seem to think that the '66-67 Beetle dist 0231137011 or 0231137009 works best with the 30PICT carbs that they "say" work best on a 1500/1600SP. I bought a couple of those distributors, went through the best one quickly and installed it. The best one was dirty and didn't spin really free so a quick go-through was in order. Being that it's vacuum only advance, pulling it apart is super easy- pop off the spring clip,

Punch the pin out (I did that in a vise, this was just for the pic),


Pull the shaft out which looked grungy. (no pic) Chuck it in a drill and wrap it with 1500 sandpaper to clean the bearing surfaces and cam lobe, it now looks like new.

Take a wire brush and clean the bushings,

Clean in solvent (don't get it on/in the diaphragm if you didn't pull it off) and reassemble with some lightweight lube on the bushings and cam. It's oiled by the engine so long term lube is not important. If it had centrifugal advance, cleaning and lubing that would be important but this one doesn't. Put new parts inside, install into the engine and set the timing.


I now have 200+ miles on it and really don't notice much difference between the H30/31 carb with a SVDA distributor, the new 30PICT/SVDA and 30PICT carb and vac only advance. But, you know, if they say it on the Samba, it has to be true.

I also replaced the fuel sender with a new one which is also funky. I measured the resistance before installing it and using gravity to move the float and it looked good, but after installing it and running a few tanks of fuel past it I find that the float hangs at the 3/4 position and won't read full when the tank's full. The sender should read near 0 ohms with the tank full and it reads about 20 ohms. Another sender is on it's way.

I got the Ghia out, changed the fuel in the tank since it was from last year and filled it up. Took it out for a good ride, it looks and runs great even though it's been sadly neglected. The phukking fuel sender on it took a shit, too, and the float sunk (again). I'm losing track of how many senders I've put in these cars but it's something like 4 in the Ghia and will be 3 in the Bus. It's the same part number sender.

!@^&%**(&%#$@##$!!!!!!!!!

Ken wrote:Is the gas gauge measuring voltage?

I had a similar problem with the 66 Westy gas gauge (6volt). I cleaned all the connections and that seemed to correct the problem.

Now having a problem with the 68 SC (12volt) not working at all. Stay tuned.

Update:

By the way, I cleaned and reconnected the ground lead at the tank sending unit and the guage works perfectly. Seems fairly accurate also.