my new old 1988 ss20v

[ab59]

Next is pick up work. Glovebox carpet and door . Never anchored the engine doghouse to the deck so will take care of that and the little things that need to be done.
For some reason my vacuum gage shows the timing is off so guess I'll fire up the engine and both re-adjust the carburetor and fine tune the engine then take her to the boat ramp and run on the trailer , then check the timing again.
The girls can't seem to sew this cheap piping that I bought for a dollar a yard so I ordered some good stuff for THREE TIMES THE COST before the doghouse turtle shell and my front cushions can be finished .
I'm gettin close and can feel a distant excitement. Looking forward to a real splash within ten days. Of course that is without any other unforeseen circumstances showing their ugly head.

 

[ab59]

Been trying to figure out my non working fuel gauge and since I get 164 ohms at the sender and the gauge won't move off of empty no matter what I do to it , I'm figuring that the fuel gauge itself is bad. These gauges are Teleflex with square faces and I can not seem to locate one anywhere. Anyone out there in Starcraft land got any idea where I can find a working square faced fuel gauge ??

 

[Watermann]

Have you tested the gauge itself?

https://www.boatingmag.com/checking-boat-fuel-guages-and-fuel-sending-units

 

[ab59]

Ok , this time when I made a jumper wire and jumped the sending unit to ground the gauge jumps to full, something i did not get earlier but did not use a jumper wire. So according to the article this would mean the sending unit is bad although I get an ohm reading of 164 , I believe I have around 15 gal of fuel in the tank . If is is a 30 gal tank that reading would be about right , wouldn't it ? Do you still get a reading from a bad sending unit ?
I'm kinda scratching my head now but I will follow the advise of the article and buy another sending unit. Guess I'll need to pull the float out anyway to replace or identify what model it is. Maybe I can test it at different levels just to be sure once it's out.

 

[ab59]

One more curious thing is that there are 3 ground wires at the tank attached to the sending unit screws and then the one sending unit wire, red in this case. Is it common to use the sending unit as a ground source or does the gauge really use 3 grounds for some reason .
I dunno .

 

[ab59]

Ok , I have the float and SU out and have ordered another one. Then I saw that my battery had gone from a full charge yesterday to in the red today by noon ( battery is new and known to be in good condition as it held a charge for at least 8 months when disconnected from the system ). I noticed this problem before but was hoping that after I had re installed the electrical at the engine that the problem would not still be there.
When I mentioned it before and stated that the switches were still hot with the key off ( blower, bilge pump, horn etc. ) some one chimed in and said that had to be the problem . Would having the switches hot all the time drain the battery even if they were not on ?? If so how do I rectify the problem ? My knowledge about electricity is very basic so keep it simple so my pea brain might be able to absorb some of the information. :joyous:
Forgot to mention I do not have fuses , only circuit breakers . When I was trying to test the ol take the negative cable off test I got my wires crossed and now my 12v reads -00.00 but the other settings still seem to work. Guess I need to buy another multimeter tomorrow.

 

[Watermann]

You could always add a battery idolater switch and kill all power when not in use.

 

[ab59]

Dang , been chasing down electrical problems at the switch panel and circuit breakers but got it done . Then my " rebuilt Holley carburetor , after having ran real good the last time I started it ( afew months ago ) suddenly gave me problems but again, with the help in these forums I was able to find and fix the problems . Man these guys are good at what they know and again a great big note of appreciation for all who helped , especially AllDodge with a close second being watermann .
Anyway , now it's my Alternator that is the problem and my upholsterers seem to be sick ( the wife and her mother )as well , so no progress on the turtle shell for my engine doghouse or seat cushions . I just hope they get well soon because we all know that , " if the wife isn't happy then no one is happy ) and true dat true dat .
The upholstery would have been done but I'm too cheap to buy a used upholstery sewing machine .:joyous:

 

[ab59]

Float and sending unit here ! Too bad it is 110* today but believe it or not I have been out there installing a new horn that doesn't work when I flip the switch , of course , :lol: , but I will figure it out. Can't get myself to start on the sending unit and float today but will get er dun in the morning . I'm still working on the horn problem and hooking up the anchor lights anyway.

 

[ab59]

success . You know , while I was laying under a mass of wiring that did not correlate to any other incoming wiring a great epiphany occured to me that I may be using the wrong leads for the horn and that the ones that went to the old horn may not have been right and waalaa, I had a live wire and switch to the horn. Amazin how 100% of the time if you are trying to use the wrong circuit your apparatus wont work. Everything works ! For now anyway.

 

[BWR1953]

success . You know , while I was laying under a mass of wiring that did not correlate to any other incoming wiring a great epiphany occured to me that I may be using the wrong leads for the horn and that the ones that went to the old horn may not have been right and waalaa, I had a live wire and switch to the horn. Amazin how 100% of the time if you are trying to use the wrong circuit your apparatus wont work. Everything works ! For now anyway.

Congrats on figuring that out! Always nice to solve a puzzle.

 

[Watermann]

I find combining old and new wiring has it's own set of challenges that have to overcome, good to hear your working it all out.

 

[ab59]

Man I thought I finally had a handle on this thing but now after I installed the new float and sending unit the frigging gauge still don't work.:frusty: I tested everything and thought I had it figured out , dang this can be frustrating or maybe it's just getting to me because it's been over 108 and 110 all week with today not being any exception . I'm going to pull the gauge out of the panel this time , maybe there is a ground that did not get hooked back up or is loose or something . It tested good the other day so gotta be something simple I'm missing. I may resemble a raisin before i'm done but I'll get er dun.

 

[ab59]

Just a quick update ---- been chasing wiring problems and broke my fuel gauge . Had to take a few days break so that I don't get to the point that I do not want to continue this. I am waiting on a new fuel gauge and when it gets here I will begin again.
This unrelenting heat is not helping me much but I guess if I suck it up , stop crying so much and get started earlier in the morning it would not be so hot. :joyous:

 

[Watermann]

Rule #1 in boat building - "Embrace the suck". :lol:

 

[ab59]

Guess I should not have been snivvlin at all because now all the smoke from the fires all around us is making it difficult to breath and stay outdoors too long . Didn't know just how good i had it till this morning when I could not see the backstop to my tennis court in the back yard. Never seen a fire burn down a marina that is sitting on the water until last night either. Man the whole of Northern California is on fire .

 

[Watermann]

We're getting smoke from the BC fires here in WA State so I feel your pain there too.

 

[MTboatguy]

It was kind of smoky in NW Montana today as well, very hazy and uncomfortable, I hope things go better..

 

[ab59]

Saw a map of fires in the US last night and it looks like there are fires all over the Northern part of the whole US. Man. We are the middle of 110 113 * hot days just to more fuel to the fires. Half or more of the lakes ( Lake Shasta and Whiskeytown lake ) have been devastated and the fire DOUBLED in size last night. This place literally looks like Hell. At least two dead so far and we went from 19% containment to 3% last night with hundreds of houses lost . We are screwed and nothing we can do is enough. Wow. Never seen anything like this one.

 

[ab59]

OK , back on track --new fuel level gauge in and working , wiring as good as I can get it . Eyes are stinging lungs are filling with crap but I'm getting progress made once again. mini side panels for speakers are almost ready to go in ( tonight or tomorrow morning ) and then I will mount the new back to back seats . Then the real battle begins trying to get my little woman and her mama to finish sewing my front cushions and turtle shell for the engine doghouse . Can't wait to see how that turns out.