Working Augusta petrol gauge

[brian]

I have been pestering Morris about this and had started getting the bits together to do the electric conversion. A hold up was that my tank (ie Augustas!) is a replacement without the bowl at the bottom and no hole in the top for the mechanism for locating the mechanism. The tubular sender from VW camper is 2 mm or so longer than my tank. I thought of just having a nice thick washer to raise the top rather than a bowl to lower the bottom. I asked around an Andy Tait had a tank complete with mechanism which I now have and I have been examining it. I have a gauge with a needle that rotates and I have the remains of what I think is an original  drive shaft which is very tatty (see picture).
2 questions.
1. I assume I have to desolder the bowl at the bottom and gring off thr rivets to get the float etc out. True? Would be good way to clear the tank of debris anyway.
2. Is the picture of a real drive shaft? If so, how do I remake? It looks to be a brass tube OD 6mm with a flexible drive inside. Is this a job for Speedycables and would a flexible outer work? Ends look easy as simple shape on both gauge and sender.
Not likely to be done by SPR.
Brian.

[chugga boom]

to remove the tank unit you should just take out the 6 or 8 screws that hold it in and it should pull out from the top, however the unit is made from Mazak which over time expands into the tank and usually falls apart when trying to remove, sad part of it is that nearly all augusta tank units do this , removing the bowl is a good idea as they usually rot as its the lowest point in the tank, my tank had pin holes in it when cleaned up so we sweated a piece of tin plate into the bottom of it (a new bottom) which sorted it, a bad design by all counts as if it leaks the passengers legs will become covered in fuel even worse they could or the car could catch fire as a result! I would try removing the bowl and maybe steam clean the tank out or run a car exhaust through it to get rid of any petrol vapour then heat around the fuel sender to expand the tank and try popping it out from underneath (through the bowl hole) if it survives rebuild it

[chugga boom]

just thought i'd share a few photo's of an augusta fuel gauge that between myself and father have made and fitted, this is the electrical conversion that my dad does, its a VDO tank unit available in various lengths , standard augusta is 200mm , this tank has had the well removed previously so required a 180mm tank unit. the top of the tank had been repaired too so the original tank unit mounting was not there , I used a hole saw to cut a hole in the tank (tank full of water) ten made the reinforcing ring to fit into the tank and bolted the unit in, 2 wires then run from the unit to the gauge , the gauge is an original mechanical unit with a fulvia rev counter attached to the back of it , my dad (taught electronics for 40 yrs) converts the unit to work on 6v and work as a 270 degree fuel gauge , he did a similar conversion for his own car in 2006 and is still working perfectly

[chugga boom]

few more pics , this shows the new reproduction face that he also made for the gauge, all that's now original is the glass, bezel and pointer

[simonandjuliet]

All very clever !

[DavidLaver]

I'm impressed that a rev counter will work off a fuel gauge signal.  Does the "pulse" to a rev counter work the same way as a "chopper" circuit to control a motor and it all just averages out as a voltage?

David

[chugga boom]

David you will have to ask my dad , as I said he taught electronics ( he was a senior lecturer for 40 yrs in the local collage) all I can tell you is there was an extra circuit board made that attaches to the rev counter so its not a simple blt on job, I know it takes him a couple of days to do the conversion which is all in the gauge, also the cable has to be attached when calibrating and the length not altered as the resistance will alter which will alter the accuracy of the gauge , all quite complicated but works !!

[DavidLaver]

A whole extra board and a couple of days...  BIG job.


I liked the "C" shaped bit that went in the tank.  I guess that shape it can be twisted through the open hole - just don't drop it!!!

[chugga boom]

yes its not a quick fix, I will get him to do a write up for the news letter , he has already sent the info to Brian previously so it must be written up already

[lancialulu]

I had not appreciated that the fuel gauge on an Augusta was as important as the Speedo/odometer on the dash!!

BTW very cheap (and very compact switch mode voltage regulators are available on ebay. I was investigating re-engineering the Aprilia Metron clock with a modern 1.5v movement (also very cheap on ebay), but got the original working (and then sold the car...).