working fuel gauge on a Rover 213/216 unit

[Hans Efde]

I have the Rover 200 dash in my Midas with a Rover 213/216 display. My fuel gauge works perfectly, full=full, empty=empty. Apparently the builder knew something about electrics, because he sorted it with soldering in 1 or 2 resistors. I don't know which one does what, but no doubt whizz kids on this forum can sort it out. I have 2 resistors on my display, 1 is on the back and the other is parrallel connected to the 2 outboard wires of the rh connector. I think the pics speak for themself.

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resistor 02.jpg (170.25 KiB) Viewed 11876 times

resistor 03.jpg (168.54 KiB) Viewed 11876 times

resistor 04.jpg (69.14 KiB) Viewed 11876 times

[DavidL]

These photos are as good as I could have wished for, Hans, thank you. Forty years ago I could have read the stripes and known almost immediately what values they were, but not now - however, nowadays we have Google so it isn't difficult to find out!

I'll be finding a couple of suitable resistors to fit on the Honda Ballade instrument panel I bought on eBay a couple of days ago, after someone on this forum pointed it out - was it you? I'm afraid I can't remember...

[Victorc]

Hans,
Thank you for the photos. I have the 216 instrument and the fuel gauge shows just over 1/2 full when the tank is filled, and empty when there is more than 1/2 a tank. This is not helpful.

I will be consulting with someone who will know the resistors, and will probably have some available.

No more running out of fuel!!

Thanks
Victor

[Hans Efde]

You're welcome Victor. And I am planning something very special for this instrument set. So if one day your set works properly, but you are bored with its design, you could buy something that would be a straight swap and will look like this (for example):

Toyota-Celica-T23-plasma-dials-Plasma-Tacho.jpg (28.96 KiB) Viewed 11846 times

Toyota-Celica-7th-Generation--dials.jpg (29.74 KiB) Viewed 11846 times

A custom made plate for the Rover 213 dash with the Midas logo in it and with a new illumination needle set would cost between 200 and 250 euro's. Not cheap, but it would give the Midas a professional look inside. Previously I thought about a digital dash, but these are quite small, I am not that fond of a digital read out and of most units the rpm goes to 9K or 12K which means on a Midas the rev counter needle would usually sit in the corner. Then a refreshed dash plate would do the job for me. At the moment I am trying to find a proper needle kit that will fit the original instruments shafts (and doesn't cost a fortune).
BTW these pics are from Xtuners in Bulgaria. They are asking 150 euro's for such a design, but I am not getting all answers about details so I probably will have plates made by D-werx who are local and have been very friendly and cooperative (but more expensive) so far. When it comes to scanning I will ask them to keep in mind to make an mph dial so it could be done for a UK Midas as well.

[Victorc]

Hans,
The modifications to the instruments looks good.
I have thought about changing the dash, by using a combination of digital and analogue dials, but I have a list of other things to do. (Including the resistors on the dash)

Here is one of the instruments I think would look good.
http://www.moorespeedracing.co.uk/koso- ... o-10k.html

Regards
Victor

[DavidL]

Well, I've had a look at some resistor colour charts, but I'm not entirely sure about the values I get; mainly because I'm not sure I'veinterpreted the colours in Hans's photos correctly!

The blue resistor looks to me like it's red, violet, black, black, red, which I believe makes it 270 ohms with a tolerance of +/-2%.
The buff resistor looks like brown, grey, black, gold which translates to 18 ohms, tolerance +/-5%. However I'm not sure I have the colours of the first and third bands correctly, the third one might be brown, which would mean the first band is probably red or even orange. I think I'd have to see the actual resistor to be certain - preferably with a multimeter to be on the safe side!

[Hans Efde]

I can measure them with an Ohm meter, but does that make sense while being soldered in the circuits? Or because it's disconnected to the rest of the car I should get a good reading?

[DavidL]

I can measure them with an Ohm meter, but does that make sense while being soldered in the circuits? Or because it's disconnected to the rest of the car I should get a good reading?

I'm fairly confident about the blue resistor's value, but I don't think you would get an accurate reading of it anyway, because I'd imagine the two wires it bridges at the connector block will both go to (I think) the fuel tank sensor (or the water temperature sensor). However, if you were to disconnect one end of the buff resistor where its track is screwed into the back of the panel, then I think you would get a sensible reading of its value.

[Hans Efde]

Okay I measured the resistance of the resistors for what it makes sense. The one on the back of the instrument panel measures 22 +/- 1 ohm. The blue one in the car measures 79 +/- 1 ohm. So the one you thought would be 18 ohms seems correct. The blue one was measured in the car. All circuits dead and the connector not on the unit, so I am reasonably confident that reading is correct. I am therefore confused about the big difference in the theory and what I measured.

[Hans Efde]

I rechecked the reading on the small blue resistor. I can't get a better reading than 75 ohms, measured with different settings on my ohmmeter, via the plug and via the wires. But I don't know what the effect is of the fuel gauge itself. Maybe you can measure this on your own car by taking a reading from the 2 outer pins of the plug (with the ignition in off). If that's an open circuit the resistor must be 75 ohms. If you do get a reading it should be possible to use this to calculate the correct resistance.