63 Giulia Tri gauge problems & questions

[L.MCKEOUGH]

Hi Guys,
I'm working on my recent barn find and I'm having problems with the Tri gauge. This is a low mileage (26k) one owner car which does not seem to have been monkied with. Everything else in the car seems to work perfectly except the water temp and oil temp and the gas gauge. The low level gas indicator light does work correctly. If I ground the wire from either the oil, or water sending units, the gauges read full scale immediately. Other wise they don't move. I'm thinking since they go full scale when grounded that there's no wiring or ground problems. I got new sending units for both and so far replaced the oil sending unit. Still no temp reading for the oil. While reading the wiring diagram I see there is a resistor in the circuit and I took it apart and measured (I think 8 ohms?). I cleaned the contact points & reinstalled it but still no reading. The gas gauge needle has the same problem. When I ground out the wire the needle reads full scale, otherwise nothing. However when I get low on fuel the red low level light comes on. What am I missing? could all three sending units including the new oil temp one be bad? I it just coincidence?

Thanks

Larry McKeough

[L.MCKEOUGH]

Since over 50 people have read this post with no replies yet, here's a new question. Does anyone know how many ohms the temp sending units (both oil & Water) are supposed to be? I would like to know both in the cold state and at normal running temperatures.

Thanks
Larry

[pathung]

I'll be the first to reply, albeit with no helpful information.

I have a Giulietta-style tri-gauge that reads full-fuel at all times, and water and oil temps that read, but seemingly inaccurately. The fuel level sender is brand new from Centerline, and coupled with a few other clues here and there, my mechanic believes that the wiring on the back of the gauge was incorrectly re-connected by the folks who restored my gauge. I also have a '63, but it somehow came to me with Giulietta gauges; yours?

[Alfajay]

Quote:

Originally Posted by L.MCKEOUGH Since over 50 people have read this post with no replies yet, ....

[Gordon Raymond]

Listen to Jay. My experience tells me he probably knows the simple answer.

[dennis skraba]

Quote:

Originally Posted by L.MCKEOUGH Hi Guys, I'm working on my recent barn find and I'm having problems with the Tri gauge. This is a low mileage (26k) one owner car which does not seem to have been monkied with. Everything else in the car seems to work perfectly except the water temp and oil temp and the gas gauge. The low level gas indicator light does work correctly. If I ground the wire from either the oil, or water sending units, the gauges read full scale immediately. Other wise they don't move. I'm thinking since they go full scale when grounded that there's no wiring or ground problems. I got new sending units for both and so far replaced the oil sending unit. Still no temp reading for the oil. While reading the wiring diagram I see there is a resistor in the circuit and I took it apart and measured (I think 8 ohms?). I cleaned the contact points & reinstalled it but still no reading. The gas gauge needle has the same problem. When I ground out the wire the needle reads full scale, otherwise nothing. However when I get low on fuel the red low level light comes on. What am I missing? could all three sending units including the new oil temp one be bad? I it just coincidence? Thanks Larry McKeough

[L.MCKEOUGH]

Thanks for responding! It seems to me from the answers here and from searching old posts, that lots of people have these similar problems and I'm not so sure they ever get solved. I got some private Emails about this and I'll try to get to the bottom of it. It would be nice if each time that someone posted a problem, the final post in the series was if and how they solved the problem.
By the way, from what others have said, my car is a 1963 possibly made in 1962 because it supposedly has Giulietta gauges. My car came wired with negative ground and the manual that came with the car shows it in the wiring diagram and states in writing it's negative ground. I could be wrong but since it was a one owner car that was only driven until 1972, I don't think anyone touched the wiring or gauges.
Again I ask if anyone has the correct Specs on the resistance of the temperature senders so I can start there to see if they are defective.

Thanks again

Larry Mckeough

[rcess]

Quote:

Originally Posted by L.MCKEOUGH By the way, from what others have said, my car is a 1963 possibly made in 1962 because it supposedly has Giulietta gauges. My car came wired with negative ground and the manual that came with the car shows it in the wiring diagram and states in writing it's negative ground. I could be wrong but since it was a one owner car that was only driven until 1972, I don't think anyone touched the wiring or gauges.

[L.MCKEOUGH]

Hi Bob,

Ser # AR373589

Larry

[rcess]

Larry,
It is a '62. It was a common practice in those days to register a car using the year it was sold rather than the year it was manufactured. I'll send you an e-mail tomorrow concerning sender resistances.

[don000]

Quote:

Originally Posted by L.MCKEOUGH Since over 50 people have read this post with no replies yet

[L.MCKEOUGH]

Thanks Bob & Don and others who are helping. I just joined the Yahoo group today. Thanks

Larry

[spider4me]

On the 750-101 list you might want to contact Les Hurlock, he is the Guru of the trigauge. he also live close-by here in oregon

[rcess]

Neil,

There used to be two great articles on the AROO website: "Dark thoughts about Lucas Electrics" by Les Hurlock, and "Giulietta Temperature Gauge Calibration" by Erik Roe, but I cannot find them on the current site. Any chance of getting these back on the site? I saved the article by Erik, but not the one by Les. After I restored my '62 Giulietta Spider, and replaced the temp sending units, the temp gauge needles would not move off the bottom pegs, and Erik's article saved the day. I've e-mailed Erik's article to Larry.

[spider4me]

Hi Bob, I'll see if I can locate them. In the meantime can you email me the one you do have?

Thanks