Gas gauge tightness?

J

jimmyz80

Junior Member
The neoprene gasket in my gas gauge has started to leak, and looks pretty deteriorated, so I'm planning to do a gauge rebuild with cork gaskets. Our of curiosity, does anyone have any tips for finding the right tightness for installing the gauge? Somewhere between "it leaks" and "oh crap I stripped something". :)
 
It doesn't have to be very tight ( whatever that means to you :)) , no more than good finger tightenting using the correct wrench- (that way if it does leak you can always tweak it a bit tighter). Clean the galss thoroughly, use new gaskets and I always use a smear of gasket sealant ( over here I find blue Hylomar is is best).
 
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Jimmy,
As Paul said usecthe cork only . 1 gasket behind the glass lens in the inner nut with the metal plate and then the nut. They include 2 small cork gaskets but you only use 1 of them. Do the inner one in the bench and get it good and snug tight. Do not do “hand tight” as was suggested above, you will be sorry. I’ve done hundreds of these.
Then making sure all the ridges are clean on the tank and back of gauge use the cork setting it in the hole and then the gauge followed by brass thrust washer and outer nut.
Snug well and check Aligmment . If gauge moves adjust and retighten.
The best tool for the outer nut is the original steel 5z wrench. Most don’t have access to them but if you find one ****** it up. They are the best. I don’t use any sealant and haven’t had leaks.... that’s up to you .
FYI make sure gauge is calibrated by checking before tightening in.
Larry shepard
 
We see this a lot in gas tanks that we are restoring. Often times the surface the gaskets seal against is pitted or corroded which causes the gasket to leak. The cork gasket can be squeezed into the pitting more effectively, but the correct way is to resurface the gauge gasket surface. This can be done with a valve seat cutter turned by hand.
 
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