Voltage stabilser

[peterallen]

Hi everyone, hope all are safe and well, apologies if I'm covering old ground but my searches have been unfruitful.

Am I missing something when fitting a new voltage stabiliser, I thought it was a case of remove old and plug in new,

which seemed to be confirmed by Adam at Moss, but, having done that, fuel and temp gauges still don't work. After

checking circuits etc the only thing I've found is 12v goes into the unit and nothing comes out, the only other oddity 

that I've realised is that my wiring differs from the wiring diagram in that rather than power going from the stabiliser to

the fuel gauge and then temp' mine goes to the temp' and then fuel. Could that do it, although it's all worked ok

before?  Tank sender is the original but the temp sender is new. As you've probably gathered by this message, these

'dark arts' are not my forte, and I hope someone can offer me some advice.

Thanks all

Pete. 

[RobH]

If  the connections to the stabiliser are right, it is most likely the stabiliser itself at fault Pete.  It needs an earth connection in order to work properly - have you checked that? 

You haven't said what type it is - original bimetallic or modern electronic.  The electronic ones are polarity sensitive and you must get the right one  - should be negative earth to suit your car I think (?)  The order of the connections to the gauges as you describe will not make any difference.  

[Bfg]

Pete, just in case it helps the issue with mine on a 4A was that the component was screw fastened onto the painted panel. That then wasn't earthed.  Simply scraping the paint away locally on the panel sorted it. 

However, the issue was apparent insomuch as the voltage increased with charge as the engine revs increased and so the gauges both worked but their readings went up with road speed and then went back towards normal at tickover.

[RobH]

Please don't take this the wrong way Pete but a thought has just entered my mind and it's worth asking as it might be a simple answer to the problem.

We have had a couple of instances in the past of people who are not that familiar with the cars, mixing up the voltage stabiliser and the flasher unit because the location may not be obvious and they can look rather similar...........

 

 

[peterallen]

Thanks for the replies, and yes Rob it is the stabiliser I'm having the problems with, that fixes to the back of the speedo,

it's one of the modern electronic ones and is negative earth. Bfg is correct in that it fixes with a single screw onto the

back of the speedo, doesn't appear to be any paint there and the previous one worked, it's rather frustrating but I 

think I'll have to start checking all the circuits again, there must be something, somewhere, that I'm missing. I've now 

tried 3 seperate units with the same result. First one, I purchased, second one supplied F.O.C thinking I had a duff one,

and a 3rd one purchased from a different supplier thinking along the lines the first ones may be from a bad batch.

Although it has a different name on the label though, it looks identical to the first 2 and I still get the same result.

Thanks again

Pete.

[RobH]

Silly question perhaps but Is the body of the speedo actually earthed?  

[Steves_TR6]

2 hours ago, RobH said:

Silly question perhaps but Is the body of the speedo actually earthed?  

Must be for the illumination bulbs to operate no?

[RobH]

 

6 minutes ago, Steves_TR6 said:

Must be for the illumination bulbs to operate no?

Yes it should be indeed - but is it now ? 

[Steves_TR6]

8 minutes ago, RobH said:

 

Yes it should be indeed - but is it now ? 

Oh I See !

[peterallen]

 

Well I've now been able to have another luck at things and am still no closer to solving the problem. I've bypassed the stabiliser and grounded out each instrument and both work, I've checked the continuity between the feed from the stabiliser to the instruments and thats ok, checked the ground on the speedo and thats ok. With ignition on there's 12v at the feed to the stabiliser and nothing out,engine running 13v at the feed and nothing out. All this makes me think it's the new stabilisers, but 3 duff ones, somehow I find that hard to believe.

 I note on American club websites that they have mentioned problems with these units for years, and are not at all impressed by the current offerings. Are original style bi-metal ones still available if so where? If I could try one of those and things still didn't work, then I'd definitely know it was something I've done when wiring up, goodness knows what though as up till now I've not found it. 

[RobH]

Have you attempted to test any of them off the car?   Just wired up to a car battery with power to B and a small panel bulb from I to earth to act as a load ?

You would certainly be very unlucky to have three new duff units.