Guages Question

[lowrad]

Well Im picking up a 96 Tracker for the wife and apparently a couple of the few problems it has is that the fuel guage doesn't work and neither does the temp guage
Now my question is would anyone think it's just the guages or would it be the sending unit for the heat and say a bad ground for the fuel sending unit or something
Are these little beasts known for such things?
Any help/suggestions appreciated
Thanks
Me

[jtgh]

yes,,

yes, its is common.
Be careful Air bags , if you got them, check and learn how to defeat them before mucking about.

is it a 96 1.6L ,or 96 1.8 Liter. really helps to id issues.

no check engine light?
if power is lost to instrument cluster ,you lose many things. and would notice.

id fix the temp gauge first , its got to be easier.

sorry only have sidekick data on air bag, but it might be the same.
recommend getting fsm for anyone working on air bags and get the correct make model and year. Airbags are no joke and are lethal to mechs.

they do kill children, old folks, short legged folks and last mechanics.
newer ones are far better, IMHO !

[lowrad]

Sorry for the amount of time without a responce.been busy
So as it stands...its a 96 with I believe a 1.6....all it says is its a 16valve on the motor..lol...so I believe its a 1.6...its a 2dr....I believe its just the base model convertable
Anyways when I got it I also discovered the tach didn't work either
So I took the guage cluster out and looked at it...pluged it all back in..the tach works.lol...but still no temp or fuel guage...now I looked at what I believe is the temp sencor on the motor and everything looks to be pluged in....and if the sending unit were to be gone asfar as I've always been told wouldn't that mean the fuel pump wouldn't work...
SO.....I think I'm leaning towards the guages themselves...but I was wondering how often or if they are a common problem before I go any further

As far as the rest of the Tracker goes its pretty decent...little rocker work to be done and the bullring between the cat and itermediate pipe...other than that it's a decent little rig....and as my wife says...my obsession continues...lol....thinkin about putting a lift into it already...but we'll see come spring...lol
Thanks for the help so far....
Hope'n for more..lol

[TheZuke!]

Here's a gnarly looking Speedo cluster
from the local salvage yard
(97 Tracker 4door AT)

The shell is busted up, but maybe the
electricals will swap out.

TheZuke!

[jtgh]

no hurry ,and welcome.
that tach is working now , good. dirty conns ,bad
we used to clean the contact with a pink perl eraser , or end of pencil carved.
now just I hit it with tooth bush hard. buffing...

keep open mind, could be 3 problems, been known to happen.

my schematic says you have power to gauges, so power is there.
see my test on this page, all it takes is a 194 car side lamp. common as nails. they are.
part 37 is sender
http://carfix.stufftoread.com/sensors/ECT-loc.JPG
next see this ( works up to 95 , i presume good to 96 too)
coolant gauge test


try unpugging sender, note results
then connect to lamp as per FSM instructions above.
it must deflect, if yes guage is good, sender is bad.

no, the pump and sender are seperate in take (electrically that is)

zuks are infamous for flaky tank senders , but 96 were not as bad.

you should be able to test temp guage now.

later we can do tank last,its more convoluted a test.

cheers to you and all

nice offer from thezuk,

[the flying scotsman]

Fuel and temp have a common power supply, the loss of which would affect other inst panel indicators which may eliminate no 12v as your problem. Fuel guage and sending unit have different grounds, G400 for sender and G200 for guage. Temp gauge grounds progressivly through the ECT sender. They both share a common connector, C200; Blk/Yellow ground to fuel gauge at pin 17 and Yel/White for wire to sender at pin 20. C200 is located behind inst panel near interior fuse block and is wide w/ 22 cavaties. Try separating the conn halves and reconnect. That's where I'd start.

[jtgh]

lorad he is quoting the FSM.
The FSM has the cluster schematic and the physical harness lay out drawings.

i dont have 96 fsm
here is my 91-95 cluster, it will give some idea of how yours works.

cluster dwgs. are hard to get
in the past they were integrated in the main fsm.
but later they are separate manuals.

note the tricky split ground at B8 and A1.

[the flying scotsman]

If your unit is a 96 Geo Tracker, JT's schematic won't help you much, certainly in respect of grounds because all ground circuit identifiers are preceeded by the letter '"G" on all the General's products. Your first post ID'd only 2 component issues, now increased. There are splices on fuel level circuit, but with no issues w/other components also grounded by this splice, I'd look elsewhere. Have you carefully inspected the printed circuit board on the back of the IP for any minute breaks in the conductive path for components at issue? Always difficult to do anything productive w/ electrical issues on the internet.

[jtgh]

but we have fixed hundreds , here, I get so many emails from this forum that have fixed their problems and 10 times more , from passive readers ,just looking , and doing and correcting faults.

we only need two things. a schematic , a meter and nodal analysis techniques.
nothing more.

a harness map helps but is not required.

No road map is a problem.

someone here , just might have the 96+ schematic, only time will tell.

cheers