Fuel needle dancing all over the place

[joew]

OK, my wrist is healing nicely and I had a few (cold) test rides on my bike.  I am taking care of things as time allows.  When I bought the bike, the fuel gauge needle was missing the black decorative cap.  Well, not really missing, it was at the bottom of the cluster near the speedo.  When I took out the instrument cluster, I noticed that there was also a semicircular piece of brass near it.  It looks like the little piece of brass fit onto holes on the center of the fuel needle and the black cap fits over that.  I'm assuming that it acts as a balancer for the needle.  But  I seems to fit either on the needle side or the butt side of the indicator.  I put it on the butt side of the needle cause it seemed right at the time.  Now with everything back together, the fuel needle jumps wildly.  Maybe the the little brass piece should be on the needle side of the indicator?  Before I hack at it again, does anyone know what side that little piece of metal goes on?  If I got it right them I will need a new fuel gauge...

[joew]

Answering my own post....  It was annoying the out of me so I took everything apart again.  I took the little brass "weight" off the needle completely and put it all back together.  It didn't fix it but it did stop the extreme dancing - it now sways.  Looks like my answer is that it goes on the front needle side of the indicator.  I'll be taking everything off one more time to fix that and will change out all the instrument bulbs while I'm in there.   

[H00dz]

That's weird I have the same problem on mine...... This is my second  FJ (despite being told they were solid motors I managed to break it - Big end problem)  Anyhow It didn't happen on My first bike. Id be interested to know if you figure it out

[joew]

It's gonna be a few more days till I get a chance to take it all apart for another attempt.  It is snowing right now.  There is no room in my wife's garage to work on it so the bike is jammed into a small path just to keep it out of the elements.  I will post the results.

[DaveA]

I also have the same issue.  First of all it registered nothing when i got the bike.  I took out the instrument panel and cleaned all the connectors.  This only made it rise from the pin to the bottom of empty.  After a few days use it now shows half a tank when the tank is full, and sometimes when i'm riding it, it bounces all over the place like yours!  Not a clue as to why yet....

[rktmanfj]

http://www.fjowners.com/index.php?topic=333.0

Randy T
Indy

[joew]

Should have checked the SEARCH feature first.  My bad. 

Anyhow, it is still very cold (~20F) so probably still won't get a chance to resolve the problem in the next few days.  I will have to check/refill the damping fluid first to resolve the jumping around.  Then I guess I still have to figure which way to put that brass weight on the needle.   

I saw the picture of the fuel gauge with the metal housing that needs to come off.  How does it come off? 

[joew]

Well, a few days turned into a month.  We had a few snowstorms and below freezing temps since the last post.  Anyway, I finally got a chance to "fix" the fuel gauge problem.  Using info on this board, I took out the fuel gauge guts spread the windings on the sensor.  Instead of drilling through the housing as others have done, I melted a hole using a small brad nail.  Seemed to work OK.  I added some hobby oil and plugged the hole with a glue gun.  Long story short, put every thing back together and fired it up.  Nothing.  Now the gauge doesn't register at all.  Stays at the lower stop.

Ugh.  Possibly I damaged one of the wires on the winding while spreading them apart or melted one of them with the brad nail.  Now the gauge is hosed.  I will reread all the posts on the subject just to make sure I did everything properly. 

[joew]

UPDATE:
My fuel gauge is not hosed.  Last week I filled the tank all way because I was going on a good long ride.  I noticed that the needle did in fact move.  It moved up to about the quarter tank mark and it was steady.  So, looks like it might be OK once I pull the needle out again and adjust it.  Does anyone know how I do this?  I mean, where should I position the needle  - at the stop?  or at the 'empty' hash mark?