Vitesse 6 petrol gauge

[Colin Lindsay]

This is the type I last used, on the left, reliable so far...

 

[Pete Lewis]

the old smiths type  thermo mechanical stabilisers give out a steady 10.5volt to the gauges as a pulsed sort of 10-0-10-0  as it switches on / off. regardless of input voltage wich as this varies means the gauges would always be giving variable readings  hence the need to stabilise the voltage to keep staedy needle reading 

Pete

 

 

[Chris A]

1 hour ago, NonMember said:

Probably dud then. They're rubbish quality. I had to replace the one on my Toledo three times before I got one that worked properly for more than a few weeks.

If it is dud wouldn't the temperature gauge read false as well?

[NonMember]

3 minutes ago, Chris A said:

If it is dud wouldn't the temperature gauge read false as well?

Yes but since you've never put it into the condition where you could tell whether it was, my suspicion is that it is! If you knew that the temperature gauge should be reading fully hot, then you could see whether it does. But your engine doesn't overheat so you can't see that it's under-reading a bit.

[dave.vitesse]

A clever device in it's time, 1950's, when it was designed. No suitable solid state parts then.

The unreliable electronic replacements types are just a series transistor with a zener diode controlling the, base, voltage. The transistor give current gain and allows greater power than the zener diode on it's own. This type doesn't have overload protection and can easy burn out. The better types have a voltage regulator chip with overload protection. e.g. 7810.

Back in the late 1970's the gauges of my Toledo became intermittently erratic and after replacing the voltage stabiliser a couple of times with no improvement I built an electronic replacement using a 78** chip in the existing box. But, no improvement and it turned out to be a duff connection in the fusebox in the end! 

HiHo

Dave