66' 300 Fuel Gauge dead

[weskirkley]

This may have been covered before, and I've searched online with no luck or solid advice. The fuel gauge in my 300 is dead in the water. Ive checked the ground strap, its good, all the wire to the gauge looks good as well. I tried grounding it at the tank to get it to move... nothing. It doesn't flinch ever. I haven't been able to find a new gauge to replace it, so any suggestions? Thought of going with an aftermarket gauge mounted somewhere but hate to do that.

 

[rexus31]

This may have been covered before, and I've searched online with no luck or solid advice. The fuel gauge in my 300 is dead in the water. Ive checked the ground strap, its good, all the wire to the gauge looks good as well. I tried grounding it at the tank to get it to move... nothing. It doesn't flinch ever. I haven't been able to find a new gauge to replace it, so any suggestions? Thought of going with an aftermarket gauge mounted somewhere but hate to do that.

Welcome to the site. A quick eBay search yielded this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1965-65-Chr...uge-/291246244471?hash=item43cfa10277&vxp=mtr

 

[stubs300]

Welcome to the site. A quick eBay search yielded this.

Really sad that we have to do others dirty work, because they can't or won't do it themselves!

 

[live4theking]

First, I would check and clean all electrical connections even the ones that don't look dirty.

Second, ohm the ground strap.

Third, ohm the wires. Get some wire to use for extra long leads, alligator clips for the ends might be helpful too. Once you make your leads ohm them to see if you added any resistance, if you did make a note of it.

Fourth, pull the sending unit and ohm it, IMHO and analog meter works best becaus eyou can watch the needle sweep like your gauge would.

Fifth, my FSM for my '68 NYer in the Electrial - Instrument Cluster section speaks of a tester that sounds like a rotary dimmer switch. I don't know if it would work or not but I'd be willing to pick on up from a hardware store and try it.

Sixth, buy the one Rexus31 found on ebay.

I wish you success.

 

[mcmlvii]

Welcome to the site. I'd start with what live4theking listed above. If you do pull your fuel gauge sender and measure for resistance, it should be roughly 73 ohms with the float lever down and about 10 ohms when the lever is raised.

If the voltage limiter that supplies power to the fuel gauge has died, your temp gauge will also probably not be working (that's how my car is wired). If your voltage limiter failed in the "closed" or always-on position, it probably fried the fuel gauge wiring (that's what happened to my gauge). I ended up building a solid state voltage regulator to power my fuel/temp gauges:
http://www.forcbodiesonly.com/mopar...ge-limiter-fuel-amp-temp-gauges-66-Sport-Fury

Let us know what you find out in your troubleshooting.

 

[weskirkley]

Mine doesn't have the temp gauge it just has the indicator light. But all that seems to work fine, voltage works fine to. Rexus31 i saw that one on there before but It doesn't look quite like mine, from what I can tell, so I didn't think it would work. I haven't pulled it from the dash cluster yet cause its such a pain to be able to tell for sure. Ill do the ohm test next. Im a body man and electrical scares me haha. Thanks for all the help guys.

 

[rexus31]

Mine doesn't have the temp gauge it just has the indicator light. But all that seems to work fine, voltage works fine to. Rexus31 i saw that one on there before but It doesn't look quite like mine, from what I can tell, so I didn't think it would work. I haven't pulled it from the dash cluster yet cause its such a pain to be able to tell for sure. Ill do the ohm test next. Im a body man and electrical scares me haha. Thanks for all the help guys.

Post a pic of yours. It looks exactly the same as the one in my '65 300 which shares the same cluster as your '66. That gauge was used on all '65/'66 Chryslers.

 

[weskirkley]

yep thats it! thanks man. Im gonna run these ohm test and make sure that its not a wire first. I appreciate the help. Its alwaysa uneasy feeling driving without a fuel gauge lol!