fuel gauge problems....

hey guys, im just wired in a fuel gauge into my series 3 24volt, but when you turn the ignigion on the gauge just goes straight up to full, even if I pull the wire off the sender unit, if I put my hand in the tank and move the sender up and down the gauge does waver slightly but not much, any help would be great, im pulling my hair out, and yes Ive checked the gauge is 24volt, tried changeing the positive and neg around, took out the gauge, put it in, the lot other little question, I need a couple of 24volt dashboard lights where can I get these from....

thanks for your time guys.... fenman

have you earthed the sender unit? and also earth the body of the gauge. had the same on my 300tdi defender, it was the body of the gauge that needed to be earthed.

G

If its a 2 wire guage then suspect that the wire that goes to the sender has been trapped and shorted to earth somewhere, as when you pull the wire off no current can go through the guage and cause a reading.
If its a 3 wire guage then check the voltage regulator, little square box thingy a bit smaller than a matchbox, I dont know what the output is on a 24v, 12v ones are 10volt, so I'd expect either 10v or 20v.