Normal electrical fault's-indicators and fuel gauge

[brianjbox]

Hi all

First cry for help on here [ex splitty owner]

I have read through old posts to find the answers for myself but haven't found the cure?

Fuel gauge reads full all the time and has occasionally dropped to 3/4 but mostly on full, I have read this is most likely an earth fault.
What's the cure here? do I just run a new wire from the sender to the gauge?
Is it possible to remove the firewall without taking the engine out [splits don't have these]?
Is there a likely area where the existing cable gets snagged/shorts out or can it be anywhere?

Indicators, firstly the stalk doesn't want to hold in position, is there a fix or do I just look for a replacement?
Dash tell tale light only lights for the first flash then lights no more, indicators continue flashing but no tell tale light after the first light?
Is there a fix or obvious fault to check for here?

Many thanks all

Brian

 

[gimp]

9 out of 10 electrical faults are a bad earth. a good place to start.
my bay had/has the same problem with the indicator staying on instead of flashing. if i give the hazard light a got pop out sometimes they stay flashing... i found if the battery is not fully charged the electro magnetic blinker switch will not power on off on off... but just stays on. if u find the blinker box of tricks u can also adjust the arm a bit further away and it helps( did it 10 years ago to a beetle, it solved the problem) or just buy a new flasher box.. but i hope u get it sorted.
im just doing the stork on my bus. it moves all over the place. i will have a look now and see what help i find in fixing it..

 

[brianjbox]

Cheers gimp

if you find an easy fix for your indicators let us know

Cheers

Brian

 

[gimp]

ok with the turn signal stalk. ive fixed mine by tightening it up!!! seems like the obvious thing to do. i took it apart, u will see two phillips screws holding it on the the steering wheel shaft. there is a plastic ring at the bottom. make sure its all seated right and bring the two half of the turn signal clamp together. tighten the bolts evenly until both sides don't have a gap.. flick the stalk up, then down if its stopped rotating round the steering wheel job done!
im just off to see if i can find the location of the flasher box.. will post results.

 

[gimp]

ok the flasher box plugs into the bottom of the fuse box. but i read ur post again and it sounds more like a bad earth at ur tail lights. take the earth wire off and clean it up or better yet replace with new wire/connectors and screw. clean up the area where u screw it in as this needs to be bare metal. then protect it with grease or paint or both..i had a similar problem, when i used my turn signal all the lights glowed dim even tho they were off!! they would flash with the turn signal when they were on... so i cleaned up the earth and it all worked fine.
oh and in trying to help thinking ur flasher box had something to do with it i fixed my problem. hope u dont mind me posting the procedure, it might help anyway. let me know how u get on Brian.[photobucket]

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[gimp]

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[/photobucket] remove body coloursteel air duct to get to the fuse box. there are some black plastics from the air system that will also need to be pulled out the way. you can see the silver box with the vw logo in the centre of this pic. thats ur flasher unit.

 

[gimp]

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[gimp]

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[gimp]

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[gimp]

now it was so hard to get the box back into place i lifted the whole fuse box up and out of its position. this made plugging the box back in place easier. now its easy to get to the rest of whats been lurking behind there. i will go through all the connectors now and give it a clean... hope ur problem is sorted and that at least some of this has helped.

 

[brianjbox]

Wow! many thanks for all that. I'll have a play at the weekend

Cheers

Brian