HEY YALL, I'VE GOT A 52 BELAIR CONVERTED TO 12V AND THE FUEL GAGE HAS A HEARTBEAT. INSTALLED A NEW TANK ALONG WITH A NEW SENDING UNIT, PUT ABOUT 6-8 GALLONS OF GAS IN IT AND THE GAGE RISES TO 1/2 TANK THEN FALLS TO 1/4 THEN UP THEN BACK DOWN. ANY SUGGESTIONS?

Russian Spy Sattelite causing Ultrasonic interferance. Or, when the car was upgraded to 12 volts, did they get the correct polarity on everything? Your gas gauge is nothing more that an ohmmeter, if you have one handy, you could disconnect the gauge, and use your ohmscale and watch your meter, if it still has a "pulse" then you can assume it is the sending unit. If it doesn't then you can start to check your gas gauge. Look carefully for ground faults. It almost sounds like they powered the gas gauge off of something that oscilates, like a turnsignal, or the negative wire of the coil by mistakenly taking that ground for a positive.

It could be something like stylemaster47 offers. The turn signal get's the power from the positive post of the gas gauge, if the wires on the gas gauge are switched that could be a problem. also where is the dropping device connected to the gas gauge? It should be between (in series with)the wire from the ignition switch and the positive terminal, unless you have moved the fuse holder from the positive terminal of the gas gauge, on the 53 and 54 turn signal diagram, (I am not so sure where your 52 turn signal is hooked to) you are powering the turn signal with the same power your gas guage is getting. converting the car to 12 volts should include moving the turn signal power from the positive terminal to another keyed source in order to get 12 volts and the use of a 12 volt flasher. There should be more involved in changeing the car from 6 volts to 12 volts than changeing the battery, dropping ballast resistor, generator and putting a 6 volt supply device on the gas gauge and changeing a hand full of bulbs. The average cost is close to $350 and for that you could have a top notch 6 volt system, without all the associated problems of a conversion.

Good luck!

I can think of only two good reasons to convert to 12 volts, #1 Hotrodding the car by dumping in a V/8 engine. or #2 adding an A/C unit.

THANK'S GUYS I'LL CHECK ALL THE STUFF THAT YOU SUGGESTED. MR MACK, I'M JUST PUTTING THE FINISHING TOUCHES ON WHAT THE PO STARTED, HE'D GONE TOO FAR FOR ME TO GO BACK TO 6V.

420hondeere, That is often the case now days when we find one of these cars. Someone starts a project and makes a wrong turn and then don't have the patience to follow thru, so they sell it to one of us and get another car to mess up.

420hondeere
It is not too late to go back to 6v. I would nearly bet you could obtain the correct parts in a short time.
Tony

6 Volts deems more respect than 12 volts. If you run 6 volts, people assume you are the man.

I FOUND THE PROBLEM LAST NIGHT. I COMPLETELY DISCONNECTED THE TURN SIGNAL SWITCH AND ELIMINATED THAT, NO CHANGE. CHECKED VOLTAGE AT THE REDUCER AND HAD 12 GOING IN AND ANYWHERE FROM 4.6 UP TO 7.3 GOING OUT. TRACED THE WIRES AND FOUND THAT THEY WERE REVERSED. SWAPPED THEM AND I'M NOW GOOD TO GO. THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL THE HELP!

How were they reversed? Polarity? Input/Output of reducer?

THE WIRE GOING TO THE GAGE WAS ON THE "IGN" SIDE OF THE REDUCER.

It is good to hear the problem has been eliminated. The idea is to get these old Chevrolets back on the road!