Jeff F
Guru
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2015
- Messages
- 2,525
- Location
- Canada
- Vessel Name
- Escapade
- Vessel Make
- 50` US Navy Utility trawler conversion
I have a Cummins 6bt in my boat, with two sets of instrumentation. I bought the boat recently and on day two of the delivery trip the temperature gauges stopped working. They appeared to have been slightly under reading when I checked them against some spot IR readings I took before they quit.
I found in testing that the original sender is no longer functioning. In my research on a replacement I found that to properly support dual meters there are dedicated senders with a higher resistance. The original sender was meant to support a single meter. The gauges are wired in parallel and are VDO, but looking through the VDO catalogues and sales sites I don't see a sender for dual meters that meets my specs -1/2" floating ground. I considered dropping the floating ground configuration as the motor is well tied into the common ground, but still didn't find the dual meter sender listed.
I'm tempted to replace the old one with a comparable new one on the assumption that the meters will under read, and just apply an eyeball correction.
Any advice/wisdom/experience on this? Non-VDO alternatives?
I found in testing that the original sender is no longer functioning. In my research on a replacement I found that to properly support dual meters there are dedicated senders with a higher resistance. The original sender was meant to support a single meter. The gauges are wired in parallel and are VDO, but looking through the VDO catalogues and sales sites I don't see a sender for dual meters that meets my specs -1/2" floating ground. I considered dropping the floating ground configuration as the motor is well tied into the common ground, but still didn't find the dual meter sender listed.
I'm tempted to replace the old one with a comparable new one on the assumption that the meters will under read, and just apply an eyeball correction.
Any advice/wisdom/experience on this? Non-VDO alternatives?