[AnalBacon]

My boost guage has been reading -10ish at idle since I installed it. This made me very worried as the tubing is not twisted and their are no leaks...

I went and got a vacuum guage today to test the guage, before I went and took the car to SATAN. I hooked it up, and cranked it to -20. Then I looked at my guage in the car... -15, went back to the pump and cranked it up to -25. Went back in the car, the guage read -16.
Does this sound like a faulty guage to anyone else, or am I doing something wrong?

Also, has anyone had to return anything to carparts.com from Canada before?

 

[welderx]

analbacon, your gauge has crapped......
i have a sport comp lying around that suffered the same fate. it worked great for years but then started to settle into the vacuum side instead of zero when there was no signal.
i wrote autometer service and they said it could be repaired and the cost would be at maximum $21.00 (us)
if your gauge can't be returned to the vendor or if it is out of warranty this may be the deal for you.
autometer service 413 w.elm st.,sycamore, il.60178
greg

 

[AnalBacon]

It isnt at -15 all the time, only when the car is idling... thats the thing, it bounces back to zero when i shut it off.

The gauge is only 1 week old!

 

[Psychoclipse]

If your positive you don't have any leaks then your talking engine work, most probably rings and or lifters.

But let's not go there just yet:

Does the guage show boost? If it does you might want to recheck the fitting on the back of the gauge to make sure it's nice and tight, then check it with your vacuum pump to eliminate the tube going to the 'T' as the problem. You probably already read the vfaq on this but i'll post the link anyway, if you re-read it you might see something you missed:
http://home.earthlink.net/~toddhonea/BoostGage/u_boostgage_default.htm

Other than that i'd replace all your vacuum lines in the engine compartment, get silicone, i got mine from:

http://www.roadraceengineering.com/newproducts.htm

It's the larson kit at the bottom for $20 on a 2G

Also you might want to do an intake leak test, i got my tester from MachV Motorsports for $30, all you need is a compresser of some type and an adjustable air nozzle.

http://www.machv.com/jkleaktester.html

Symptoms like this almost always mean a leak somewhere (well, ok, not in the case of my '57 Olds, it was a chipped and severely burnt exhaust valve . )

 

[welderx]

from the way that analbacon has worded his post, he has tested the gauge off the car and found it faulty.......

 

[Psychoclipse]

welderx:

I re-read the post and he only checked it with the hose still on the gauge at the 'T' in the engine compartment. At least that's what I get from his "went back to the pump and cranked it up to -25. Went back in the car, the guage read -16." post. Especially the 'back in the car' part.
When I bought my SPI gauge the connector on the back came loose after I test fit everything, that's why I mentioned it.

IMHO, you have to eliminate the hose as the problem from the guage to the 'T' by checking the guage out of the car before you can blame the guage as being faulty. For all we know that hose is collapsing on him.

Analbacon:

Making any headway?

 

[AnalBacon]

MWah! Success!

Ok, I went to the Canadian Tire store and used their 'loan a tool' thing to borrow a brake bleeder/vacuum gauge. I took the hose off my manifold, hooked it up to the pump. Then I pumped it up to -20. Went inside the car and saw that the boost gauge only read -12. Funny. So I pumped the pump up to -25, went back into the car, the boost gauge read -14. One good thing though. Their was no leak, both gauges didnt drop down at all until I released the pressure.

So then I took the autometer out of the pillar, and hooked it up directly to the pump. Same thing, the Autometer gauge is bad. Damnit, now I have to ship it back down to the states for a replacement.

Oh well, on a bright note, at least it wasnt cam or timing belt problems.

 

[MoBoost]

analbacon, your gauge has crapped......
i have a sport comp lying around that suffered the same fate. it worked great for years but then started to settle into the vacuum side instead of zero when there was no signal.
i wrote autometer service and they said it could be repaired and the cost would be at maximum $21.00 (us)
if your gauge can't be returned to the vendor or if it is out of warranty this may be the deal for you.
autometer service 413 w.elm st.,sycamore, il.60178
greg

Take out your light from the back of the gauge - look inside, you will see a brass loop inside. Take a screw driver and push on the loop from inside - you'll see your needle moving on the gauge - recalibrate the guage

 

[ponytamer]

Autometer boost guages are NOT accurate. I have had two of them (both phantoms), and niether of them read correctly. Get a higher quality guage. I am running all Greddy since then.

 

[AnalBacon]

Not accurate at all? Or just in the negatives.... cause if it's just the neg, then no problem.....

Its the +'s i'm concerned about.

 

[AWDScreamenEagle]

Who makes an acurate mechanical gauges that isn't in metric units though?

 

[AWDScreamenEagle]

ponytamer: in your sig, remove all the spaces!!! Then your picture will show!

 

[AnalBacon]

"Take out your light from the back of the gauge - look inside, you will see a brass loop inside. Take a screw driver and push on the loop from inside - you'll see your needle moving on the gauge - recalibrate the guage "


That seems like a pretty nasty thing to have to do for a brand new part. Also, it does go back to zero when i shut it off, wouldn't recalibrating it screw that up?

 

[MoBoost]

Oh, I was talking about how to recalibrate the gauge to read back to 0 ... not to change the senstivity