Gauge lore, anyone?

["Wilson J. Rugh" <rugh@domain.elided>]

Did somebody say gauge lore? Brings me out of
lurking, yet again.

I tired early of the cheap speakers the dealer had installed
in the console (sides) of my 69 GT Veloce "Old Yellow," so I purchased
a quality set of speakers and installed them. Sounded much
better. Next time I drove the car - at that time I was struggling to
get a career rolling, and since I lived near work I only drove the
car occasionally - my overheating problems began. Never a boil
over as I always shut down when the temperature gauge climbed well
past where it should have stopped. I did all sorts of testing the thermostat
and screwing around like the amateur I was (am), but all to no
avail. Finally one day, on one of my necessarily short runs to
the grocery store, or package store, I noticed that the fuel gauge
was showing a full tank, though I had not gotten gas in ages.
Light bulb!
I loosened one of the speakers... as I moved it around the gauge
needles swung wildly from side-to-side... those quality speakers
had the nice, big permanent magnets on the back, and as installed
they simply biased my gauges in the positive direction. Reinstalling
the cheap speakers solved the overheating problem, and showed me
I was damn near out of gas.

Learned a lesson from that experience, but I don't remember what
it was.

Time to soak.



Jack Rugh, Baltimore MD
'69 GT Veloce
'74 Spider

------------------------------