Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

Glad to see the clutch judder is sorted - bet that is a relief. Hope the servo replacement goes ok -seems you have had more than your fair share of issues to deal with as of late.

Yep. If it hasn't been touched, refurbished or replaced, it seems to go pear shaped.

But - ooh looky:

Working (not sluggish fuel gauge, lights - actual illumination, no bouncing oil pressure needle (though I did not get it up to temp. as I couldn't drive it with no brakes, funny that). Not a great picture, I know but it looks okay to me:

That looks great to me - bet you’re pleased with that

Thank you and yes, chuffed to bits. It's brought the cluster to life.

Looks good. I've had a bouncy oil pressure needle before. Once it was a rugby ball issue and next time it was the actual sender.

I also had a bouncy tacho needle as well and it needed a replacement gauge to sort.

Did you know you can recalibrate the voltage gauge if it isn't accurate? There is a little turny potentiometer thing in the back of it, I turned mine until it matched the reading on my mulit-meter and it has been good ever since.

Your cluster is very, well, illuminating! I actually really like the dimness of mine. This is in stark contrast to all the f'king Tonka trucks on the road that blind me with their headlights that are visible from the moon. Most annoying.

Stuart

Yes, I supplied you one

That 'rugby ball': have you ever thought of cleaning up the underside of it? I found this cured the sluggish fuel gauge





No, I didn't. That's good to know. Where did you take the multi meter reading from?



SUV's? They're pants (though the 944 is a little low).

Yes and my temp gauge has not missed a beat since I swapped in your very kindly supplied rugby ball! What is interesting is that the very clean highly polished one that was in, and causing problems, looked far shinier than the replacement. I think there might be some sort of coating on them that you may actually break down with over cleaning or polishing, basing this on nothing more than a guess I have to say, your one looks more lived in shall we say, but seems to work perfect!

I took the reading straight off the battery with ignition on but engine not running. I think it was about 12.2v at the time, so I married up the gauge reading and its quite accurate now.

Yes I've cleaned every surface of the bloody rugby balls over the years, even the nuts and washers!

Fuel gauge I've never had an issue with other than when I've got, say 3/4 of a tank, going round a big right hand bend puts the reading up a bit, and vice versa with a left hand bend (it could be the other way about but you get the drift). This is more likely a worn tank sender though and not the gauge. You don't notice the phenomenon when you have 1/2 a tank or less, which for me is 99% of the time!

Odd thing with rugby balls is that I only ever have temp gauge issues with them, if I swap one from a misbehaving temp gauge to anywhere else, it works 100%. This has baffled me for years, I can only assume the temp gauge is the most sensitive instrument in the binnacle.

However, its working great just now so I will shut up!

Stuart

Have you tried cleaning up the sender unit? It's easy to extract and there really isn't much to it.

What's the efficacy of testing battery output when the alternator will supplement current?

I've changed the sender and it made no difference. I could write a book about all the things I've tried to fix this issue to no avail. 3 x PCB's, 3 x gauges, a rugby team full of rugby balls, wiring. Any time I think I've cracked it, the passage of time proves me wrong!

On point 2, I dunno. But when matching the 12.2v from the battery with ignition on, but not engine on, to the instrument panel gauge, then with the engine running I then see 14v across the battery and 14v displayed on my gauge, so it works, how, I care not!

Fair enough. I was looking at the wiring diagram just this evening (and forgive me, my head is mashed at the moment) and what I thought was now I know what live feeds the Volt meter (red/white), is that I could measure the current in and compare. However, if I was to have to adjust the potentiometer, it would require extraction and an approximation of how much I turn that little slot head around - so what's the way around that approximation?

On a different tack. my friend has his 'Scottish 911', now replete with a BMW 1500cc engine. It's an Imp. He had his seats re-upholstered by a woman in south Wales. I sent my front seat off for replacement of the bolster panels last Monday and it's come back today! I have seen pictures but haven't unwrapped the thing, so tomorrow is the unveil. Ironically (and seen how I spend so much time fixing the damn thing), it will spend most of it's time with the seat cover on it.
In the meantime, decided to take out the passenger seat in anticipation of the servo arriving tomorrow to make life a little easier, I decided to clean up the carpets. There have long been stains where the seat runners imparted corrosion on to my fickle Linen carpet. Those runners were painted long ago. I used some off white leather dye and this seems to have masked the stains and it looks quite peachy. Coupled with a new set of carpet mats (in the post; long over due - same one's since I bought the car) and my illuminated cluster, I am feeling quite chuffed about an unexpected refresh.

I hope that when driven now, the oil pressure gauge behaves normally, then somehow, I am on top of it.

I'll shut up too!

Well if effort put in = car should work correctly you'd be on a winner, but we all know that equation usually turns out to "car taking the piss........."

Joking aside you are due a wee run of non-spannering so fingers crossed!

Back to the volt gauge, I seem to recall it was quite easy to turn the dial and get the voltages to marry up. There wasn't wild swings with the slightest movement or anything like that, a wee bit of trial and error sufficed.

A wee bit of putting it in and taking it out a dozen times?!

I have an old one here in front of me. Today my brain is 'avin a good idea. I could remove the dial from my cluster and use my power pack to calibrate it on the bench so to speak.

I seem to recall I had the car running and the binnacle plugged in, but opened up, to allow me to twiddle. I think I only had the right hand wiring harness on and that let the volt gauge function. I could be wrong, it was years ago!

Noted.