[T3] fuel gauge and gauge light fluctuating

[Jim Adney]

David,

I believe you should add a ground wire to your lamp base, one way or 
the other. Either way should work equally well, so pick the way that 
seems easiest for you. I would not try to trim the dash pad. Adding 
the ground wire should make the retaining spring ground redundant and 
unnecessary. I've never seen a problem with any of the lamp bases.

The "ground" post on the back only connects the ground on the lamp 
base to the body of the gauge unit. It assures that both parts are at 
the same potential. You still need some means to make sure that those 
parts are actually connected to the body of the car, hence the ground 
via the spring clips or the ground via an extra ground wire.

Once you do that, it sounds like you MAY discover that there is a 
remaining problem. That's not clear at this point, but you'll never 
find it as long as you have the compounding ground problem.

Do you know yet why the lamp base does not want to seat all the way 
against the back of the gauge body? That seems odd. You should be 
able to pull BOTH of these out of the dash together and examine them 
directly and see what's interfering.


 
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Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
Madison, Wisconsin, USA
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