Fuel Gauge

[hershambongo]

Fuel gauge not working ! have seen the tips on Bongo Fury about re-earthing the sender ! but cant believe a new sender is £150.00 ! even looked on e-bay ! best price.......... yep £150.00 ! any ideas fellow Bongo people ? PS getting tiny little bubbles of rust over rear wheel arches ! We have no money and do I attempt to get some hammer-right & do this myself or leave it a while ?

Cheers

HB

[daveblueozzie]

Have you seen this post about the fuel gauge, it might help.
http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... uel+sender

[missfixit70]

Or just earth the tank to the chassis from underneath, should be a hole on the tank seam on the drivers side front, ripe for the job. Make sure you scrape back to bare metal to make a good connection on both ends & then splodge a bit of waxoyl over it when done.

[missfixit70]

Ben explains how to check your sender unit here - http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... =3&t=33920

[tallbongo]

Others have covered the fuel gauge - it's an easy enough fix if it is just the earth.

Re the wheel arches - do something now!

The previous owners of our Bongo let the rust get hold in the rear arches. It didn't look too bad when we got it (a lot more than a few bubbles though) but a year later and the arches have disintegrated. We now face a bill of over 500 to get them fixed alone. The total bill for welding to sort out rust will easily exceed a grand.

Others may well have advice on how to treat the bubbles already there, but you need to prevent further oxidation (rust). This needs oxygen and either chlorine (from salts) or water. If you can seal off the arches from this you will at least slow down the rusting process. At a minimum waxoyl both the inner arches behind the interior trim (see the post on wheel arches further down) and also on the exterior try to thoroughly coat the seam where the arches meet. The aim is to prevent water ever coming into contact with the metal bodywork.

I'm no expert so hopefully others will be able to give more comprehensive advice, but do not just let it go.

[Diplomat]

An engineer friend recently showed me the fuel gauge from an antique lorry.

It consisted of two parallel rods supporting a sliding float. Through the float ran a very slow thread Archimedes screw directly driving the gauge on top of the tank.

A classic piece of engineering.


Frank

[hershambongo]

Others have covered the fuel gauge - it's an easy enough fix if it is just the earth.

Re the wheel arches - do something now!

The previous owners of our Bongo let the rust get hold in the rear arches. It didn't look too bad when we got it (a lot more than a few bubbles though) but a year later and the arches have disintegrated. We now face a bill of over 500 to get them fixed alone. The total bill for welding to sort out rust will easily exceed a grand.

Others may well have advice on how to treat the bubbles already there, but you need to prevent further oxidation (rust). This needs oxygen and either chlorine (from salts) or water. If you can seal off the arches from this you will at least slow down the rusting process. At a minimum waxoyl both the inner arches behind the interior trim (see the post on wheel arches further down) and also on the exterior try to thoroughly coat the seam where the arches meet. The aim is to prevent water ever coming into contact with the metal bodywork.

I'm no expert so hopefully others will be able to give more comprehensive advice, but do not just let it go.

Many thanks ! HB

[hershambongo]

Have you seen this post about the fuel gauge, it might help.
http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... uel+sender

Many thanks all fixed ! thought it would be £150.00 plus labour job ! did iy myself ! well chuffed !

[ChrisQ]

Diplomat,

they still make fuel gauges like that, we have one that is exactly as described on top of the fuel tank in our narrowboat.
No electrics, just simple mechanics.

ChrisQ