Due to arrive soon

[94touring]

Fuel gauge on the bus had been intermittent for some time. Usually within 5-10 minutes of driving it would come alive. It finally stopped coming alive so I assumed it had died for good.  Being from Brazil the gauge isn't obtainable but a 68-72 gauge could work, albeit upside down but good enough.  Had checked the ohms at the gauge and verified it was getting signal from the tank sender.  Pulled the dash apart and hooked up the new gauge but it also showed empty on about 3/4 of a tank.  Confused, I got a sender from another tank sitting around the shop and the new gauge would work.  Decided to take out the sender from my tank to see what could be wrong. Well I upgraded from a low capacity leaky Brazil tank to a late bay tank which the access hole doesn't line up to. Had to peel back some metal to get to the sender.  Turns out the float was full of gas.  Replaced that and new gauge started working.  Having taken the old gauge out I cleaned up the electrical connection pins and low and behold it works again too.

[MiniDave]

So, a lot of extra work but the result was good!   

[94touring]

Yeah what should have been relatively easy turned into a full day.  The float getting a pin hole had to have happened sometime within the past month of the fuel gauge no longer working.  I did notice it would "come alive" once in a blue moon but sit just above E, which now makes sense because the float wasn't floating.  I did learn a little more about how these gauges work and I have to say I really dislike how they have the gauges assembled to the dash panel. There's 2 tiny pins that the fuel gauge press into that are the 12v and signal wires.  A center stud acts as the ground.  But the kicker is the metal backing plate to the gauge cluster is a hair sliver away from touching a few 12v sources.  So inevitably every time I am trying to get it in or out sparks start flying as things shift the even slightest amount. I'm thinking about taking it back out and adding electrical tape along those edges.  Also the bulb assemblies suck and are a mega pain to get twisted in just right to make a ground connection so they work.  I'm adding led 12v diodes to replace these twist in assemblies that are hit or miss making the ground connection. There's a post with multiple spades I can add a dedicated ground wire to from these diodes. The tricky part might be getting them to stay in place, but I have an idea for that.

[94touring]

Also on the project list was a front hitch.  Got myself 2 inch tube steel, quarter inch plate, and a 2 inch hitch receiver.  I utilized 5 different frame sections underneath to bolt it to. The end of the hitch has a 3/4 inch bolt that goes through a plate I welded to the frame.  Then there's even a 6th contact point which is at the front of the hitch that has two bolts go through where paneling seams are fitted together. It's really just to keep the thing from flexing the tiniest amount. Like the rear hitch I fabbed up, the front hitch works great for a jacking point. The plan here is to be able add a cargo hauler to the front or bike attachment.  This just gives me more options over hauling a trailer, or the ability to haul more stuff. The other thing I decided to do was utilize it as a tow bar attachment point. This hasn't gone as well after some road testing. The bar I made is solid 2 inch steel, sleeved, pinned, welded, and is strong enough to pull around the 777 I fly.  The issue is only having 1 contact point to the front of the bus allows the bus to "steer and angle" rather than stay square to the back of my truck. It's rather ass puckering when it gets loose back there and dangerous to say the least. I am going to modify the bar to have 2 additional arms that will pivot in line with the current pivot and bolt up to the outter ends of the hitch assembly under the frame. This will keep it square to my truck and also be extremely overkill at the same time. I figured it would be nice to have the option of flat towing in an emergency rather than sourcing my trailer, or flat towing a 4k mile trip like I took in it last year. Then just driving the bus around whatever area I end up at.  Anyways the tow hitch survived all the extreme forces of a swaying bus in my flat tow test drives.

[scalpel_ninja]

Yeah what should have been relatively easy turned into a full day.  The float getting a pin hole had to have happened sometime within the past month of the fuel gauge no longer working.  I did notice it would "come alive" once in a blue moon but sit just above E, which now makes sense because the float wasn't floating.  I did learn a little more about how these gauges work and I have to say I really dislike how they have the gauges assembled to the dash panel. There's 2 tiny pins that the fuel gauge press into that are the 12v and signal wires.  A center stud acts as the ground.  But the kicker is the metal backing plate to the gauge cluster is a hair sliver away from touching a few 12v sources.  So inevitably every time I am trying to get it in or out sparks start flying as things shift the even slightest amount. I'm thinking about taking it back out and adding electrical tape along those edges.  Also the bulb assemblies suck and are a mega pain to get twisted in just right to make a ground connection so they work.  I'm adding led 12v diodes to replace these twist in assemblies that are hit or miss making the ground connection. There's a post with multiple spades I can add a dedicated ground wire to from these diodes. The tricky part might be getting them to stay in place, but I have an idea for that.

I've found using black electrical tape in tight areas to be tricky and it inevitably ends up turning gummy over time. I've had good results with using yellow Kapton tape that seems to be rated for higher temps and longevity.

[94touring]

I'll look into that. Basically just need something folded over the metal lip where the backing plate fits to the back of the gauges where there's three different 12v sources. What it looks like back there.