Gas and temp guage malfunction

[saljal]

Took my bus out of storage a couple of months ago and noticed that my temp guage did not register even after letting her warm up for 15 minutes. I drove it home and before putting it in my building I tapped on the guage glass, nothing happened and then a few minutes later the guage registered. 3 or 4 weeks later we drive it about 150 miles to go camping and noticed that temp guage would not register during the entire trip. In addition to this, I noticed that my gas guage was also acting odd. I filled up before our trip, guage registered full. While we were driving I tapped on the guage glass a couple of diifferant times for the temp guage and noticed that the gas guage had dipped down to less than a 1/4 tank but returned to full a few miles down the road. After the campout, on the return trip, ran gas down to less than an 1/8 of tank, stopped and put in 50 dollars, but could not get gas guage to come off empty for the remainder of the trip. Now neither guage is functional. The temp and gas guage share a cluster with amperage and oil pressure guages which still seem to be functioning properly. I have noticed in the past that very light moisture is able to get in to the back side of the cluster glass when conditions are right in the morning. Do you suppose that the moisture, over time, has somehow rusted the guage indicators enough that they just aren't allowed to move as freely as they need? Thanks for any advice.

[SweetBearCub]

Unless I'm mistaken, in cars with actual separate gauges (vs. all integrated into a single circuit board), the gauges can be removed and tested for proper operation. Unfortunately, I think the testing procedures - Which you can tell pass/fail by watching the needles move in the expected directions as you test them - Are different for most gauges. What would apply to say a Ford car may not apply to an International bus, or whatever make you have. Googling how to test the gauges along with your body manufacturer may be helpful.

If the gauges pass all tests, check the wiring and connectors. Lastly, the sending units.

[dburt]

If the guages are electrically acutated, a bad ground from engine to body or frame can cause issues like you describe. Check all your ground connections, clean them well and make sure you have bare metal to bare metal on each and every connection.

[bansil]

a bad ground can def. do a number on our bus gages, you'll notice they all have a common ground on back of gages, try to follow it to were it connects to body, may just need cleaning