Asking this on behalf of someone else who has limited knowledhe of cars.

As the title says, a rebuilt 6 volt 60's beetle with new wiring harness, new tank sender and the original gauge but no change in the gauge when full or empty. Is there a simple (laymans terms) way I can tell them to test if the gauge is faulty, we assume it is the gauge as the rest is new and all correct.

Can fuel gauges like this be fixed or can you buy new replacements or new internals for them? Is anything else compatible internally? Or can speedo repairers test and fix these? Any suggestions most appreciated.

Also can a buckled wide 5 type standard steel beetle rim be straightened? Any ideas on cost and where to get this done in Sydney? Apparently they won't balance because the rims are warped or buckled. Or are they better off sourcing replacement rims? Wanting to keep it totally stock.

Hi

Make sure the the sender has an earth. The gauge should go full scale when the sender wire is earthed

Steve

Gauge needs power, earth and sender wire that varies resistance to earth. Check for power, if no multimeter you might prove pwr with a small 12V bulb (assuming 12V system) or turning ignition on-off should make the gauge needle flicker slightly. If that works, the next test is to groung the sender wire and gauge should go full scale. Pretty simple to confirm what is happening. The new wiring is a good place to start as quality can be poor and when new, you'll need to prove circuits are working correctly.

I have a strange input into this.
My fuel gauge would flicker a lot and when I turned the lights on it flicked to solid.
When I wanted to read the fuel gauge I played with the wires on the back and the needle dropped back to reading.

I put a new earth on it and it then read fuel all the time and I could not play with the wires and get it to work.
So I undid the unit to pull it out and took off the earth. Doing this I noticed when I moved the unit the needle read as it should.
It is actually earthing off the metal side of the guage onto the dash and by playing with the back I was tilting the guage down and earthing it.

I am pretty sure mine is a special case and this is not meant to happen - but hey, if it ain;t broke then don't fix it in my case.

Maybe you have a gumby guage too??

How did you end up going with this??