This is kinda long, but may be of some interest
to buyers of fuel gauges ( 57 -58 Dodge, anyway).
Many moons ago, I bought an NOS(?) replacement fuel gauge for my 57
Dodge. I installed it into my car, but it "didn't" work. I sent it to a
gauge-repairer, who told me that it "isn't repairable (for a
non-specified reason)". It LOOKS perfectly 'good'. I've since kept it as
a paperweight, in my office.
Recently, I lost-out on an Ebay auction for an "NOS" fuel gauge, from a
seller, in New York ( when it didn't meet his Reserve, but he told me,
un-politely, that he sold it, post-auction, for 50 bucks.
OK.
A month, or so, ago, I :won" another Ebay auction for an "NOS" fuel
gauge, from a gentleman in WI. , for $40.00 - ish.
I asked him to send the gauge to Bill's Speedo, in OH, as I wanted to
"clean/test" the speedo, before installing it in my car. It seems that
my car's speedo may need a cleaning, as its operation is "slow", & each
time I start it, the gauge 'reads' less-full than it did, when I
turn-off the car. I was, then, going to send my car's speedo to Bill's,
after installing the "new", 'overhauled' , fully-working speedo, from
Bill's.
The seller (whose I.D. I 'discarded') tried to "reassure" me that the
gauge was "perfect" and appeared not to require any cleaning (well, what
about "adjustment?") , but he agreed, reluctantly, to send it to Bill's
.
He did do that, but, failed to show any return-address, or, even, to
tell Bill's that the gauge was for me. I had previously contacted
Bill's, about "the gauge", but they "lost" my information.
So, Bill's receives "my" gauge , with no return-adress/contact info, and
waits for "someone's " contact. Meanwhile, I'm waiting for 'word' ,
from Bill's, about their speedo check-out (they quoted me a $35.00
check-out/cleaning charge).
I 'finally' contacted Bill's, over a week ago, & they said :" Oh, you're
the owner of this gauge".
They then said that they would check-out my gauge.
Today (here comes the moral of this story!) , Bill's calls me to say
that THIS NOS gauge is (also!) not repairable(!!!) , but they go on to
say that the reason for the non-operation is due to an internal
'failure' of 1 or more windings on the 2 "wound-thingees" , in the
middle of the gauge, and, that that was probably the reason for the
non-op on my 'first' NOS gauge!
Sooooooo, I'm " stuck" with a(nother) non-operational NOS fuel gauge
that (may) apparently look "perfectly-good" , & I've lost the
seller's info, from Ebay, who, coincidentally, forgot to I.D. himself,
when he mailed the gauge, to Bill's!
Call me bitter, but I kinda hope that the 'other' NOS gauge, that I
'lost', from the NY seller, was defective, too.
Actually, my Feedback records will have the seller's email-address; but
I don't doubt that he, in good-faith, didn't/couldn't know that the
gauge was non-operational.
If anyone DOES buy any replacement fuel gauge , my advise is to get a
"money-back" guaranty from the seller, and/or have HIM send it to a
repairer, & YOU agree to pay for the cleaning costs, IF the gauge
checks-out, Ok.
Be REAL careful if you send-out your own 'working' gauge, for an
overhaul, if you don't
have a 'good' back-up unit, available.
Neil Vedder
57 Dodge
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