Did I Kill My Gauges?

[Papa]

Today I was testing circuits with my Power Probe and when I was done my gauges were all off of the minimum reading.



The gauges still light up and the clock can be set with the button. How bad did I mess up?

[Jeff Kleiner]

Probably didn't mess up at all. What happens when you power them up? The temperature and pressure gauges should make a full sweep then return to zero, the fuel gauge should sweep then stop at whatever level is in the tank (assuming it has been calibrated) and the volt gauge should display battery voltage.

Jeff

[Papa]

Probably didn't mess up at all. What happens when you power them up? The temperature and pressure gauges should make a full sweep then return to zero, the fuel gauge should sweep then stop at whatever level is in the tank (assuming it has been calibrated) and the volt gauge should display battery voltage.

Jeff

Jeff,

What is the best way to apply power to them? I'm gun-shy on the power probe. I have the three power harness leads connected along with my positive batter wire to the starter solenoid with the battery cables disconnected from the battery. I had them connected earlier today and that's when I noticed the gauges with the needles all off the low end of the sweep (including the tack and speedo).

Dave

[michael everson]

Just put 12 volts to the little red wire in the gauge harness and ground the black wire
Mike

[Gumball]

Just put 12 volts to the little red wire in the gauge harness and ground the black wire
Mike

Like Mike says - 12v. I used a small lawn tractor battery to do all my testing when I was doing the wiring - worked really good to power things up. You can also use an in-line fuse if you are concerned with pulling too much power.