Thanks, but no, I have no spare fuel sender.

Thanks for the ebay link.

P.S. the component in question is a temp gauge, not a fuel gauge.

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1975 300D

i believe rafi is talking about making your own resistor with a repurposed length of nichrome wire that's used in a fuel sender.

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punkinfair

Another idea (less work than making a resistor from nichrome wire) is use a light bulb. I used them for a resistor before and it worked great. I think a instrument cluster bulb is around 60 to 70 ohms. If you can solder you can try it out and see how accurate your gauge will read with a cluster bulb. It may be "good enuf".

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked

Well, I finally got a resister at Supremelectronic. Had to go to the heart of Chinatown! lol.

I soldered it in, but haven't run the motor yet to see if it works. I'm still cleaning relay contacts because I'm having starter troubles again.

I put the 5w in, though the 2w is the same size as the original. The 5w is much bigger.

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1975 300D

awesome!

question-
How did you originally blow the resistor? Basically I want to be sure I don't throw power to something to cause the same issue, especially after the trouble you have had repairing it!

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This post brought to you by Carl's Jr.

I'm not sure how it blew. I was hooking up the instruments without their cage just to see if my new bulbs would work. I turned on the key, and I guess I must have shorted something.

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1975 300D

You may have accidentally applied 12V to the temperature sender terminal, but it's hard to say. I don't know if that would do it without tracing out the circuit.

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1981 Mercedes 300TD, 1994 Honda Civic Del Sol
http://mefi.us/images/fuelly/smallsig-us/67195.pnghttp://mefi.us/images/fuelly/smallsig-us/103885.png

Update: Temp gauge works!

Thanks everyone.

Mark

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1975 300D

Glad the saga has a happy ending.

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1981 Mercedes 300TD, 1994 Honda Civic Del Sol
http://mefi.us/images/fuelly/smallsig-us/67195.pnghttp://mefi.us/images/fuelly/smallsig-us/103885.png

AHa, the saga is not finished yet it seems.

The temp gauge works fine. Except if I put the light switch on. Then is pegs out max.

Now I am totally at a loss.

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1975 300D

1975300D,

There is a Fry's close by me. I'll see if I can find a 5W 68 Ohm resistor or multiple resistors that will work together to deliver that resistance. Maybe I can find one in 10% tolerance or maybe even 5%.

I'll mail it to you if I can find it.

Ack. Missed the last page of discussion.

There may be a short. Might have been what caused the resistor to act as a fuse in the first place.

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Codifex
1981 240D ChinaBlue (Got her running with a donor engine.)
1983 300DTurbo w/sunroof.
1984 300TD manual sunroof. (Electrical Gremlins)

Hi Code, I have the correct resistors now, thanks. But I am having this needle deflection problem with I turn on the instrument lights.

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1975 300D

Update: I fixed the deflection problem, something was shorting out.

And yes, finally, I know for a fact that the resistance was 68 ohms and the wattage was 1.

I bought a couple of old clusters today and looked at the temp resistors. That was printed on the resistor.

I put in a 5W resistor, but that is okay. Kind of large, but it works and won't burn out.

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1975 300D

Where was the short?

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My occupational hazard bein'
my occupation's just not around...
1980 300SD
1980 300SD

I don't know. As I was working on the instrument cluster and it was hanging loose, it did it again, so I thought I was back to square one, then it fixed itself now. I can not see behind the cluster when it is connected to the power harness, so I can't see what it may have been touching.

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1975 300D