My best guess, from your symptoms: this could be a multiple voltage
capable meter. Set to the appropriate battery volts with a series
resistor from I to S Wire battery volts to I (input?)
Connect appropriate resistor from I to S (series?) to make indication
agree with standard meter.

But I am reaching....
In the ordinary way, you should not be able to pop a volt meter with
an internal series resistor. You deserve a freeby from Hardin, I'd
think...

Brian W


On Wed, 11 Feb 2004 22:32:15 -0500, "fiddler"
wrote:

So I just fried my brand new volt gauge. My better half got me a brand new set of Hardin Stainless gauges including water, oil, fuel, volt and tach. They look great and they all went in without a hitch, except the volt gauge. The set came without any wiring instructions but I am a diesel mechanic. I can do it right!? The volt was the last one to go in. On the back of the gauge there are four posts, (L)light, (G)ground, (S) and (I). Simple huh? Well I connected ground first, then touched battery voltage to post (S), the gauge pegged out. Then touched battery volts to post (I), gauge read less than 10 volts. I verified battery volts at 12.6v with my multimeter. Then I touched battery voltage to (S) and (I), gauge pegged out. Now I am a little ****sed. I thought that perhaps the gauge had a seperate ground for the coil circuit. So it touched ground to post (I) and battery to post (S), POP! big mistake. A flash and a millisecond later fried gauge. I wrote emails to everyone I could find
who sells Hardin Gauges to make sure and include instructions with thier gauges. of course I wrote the place where my honey bought them and to Hardin marine. Needles to say I have an empty hole in my gauge panel but the rest of the gauges work great. Now I have to re-order a matching volt gauge to the tune of fifty bucks.! The whole set only cost $159.00. Lesson learned. Anybody know where I went wrong? I do not want any answeres Like "get a pro" or "check your connections". I am a pro, And the connections before the gauge are fine. Its the connections to this gauge that were wrong along with the one in my brain. Any comments?