Bizzare electrical guage gremlins

[zyewdall]

Okay, both my old '82 GL and my '85 GL both had loads of electrical gremlins, the dash and elsewhere. But so far my '89 GL hasn't had any. Till today. I finally got the new axles and clutch cable and everything put it, and take it down to town for the day. Suddenly, my voltage gauge is sitting down on the 8. I figure the wire fell off the alternator (happened to me before), or the alternator finally went (bearings have been growling for 15k miles). I turn off the headlights and fan to preserve my battery, but it doesn't come up any. Odd. It was 13 volts half an hour ago, and that's a little fast to bring it down to 8 volts with only the ignition for load. I stop at the gas station and take a look at it, but the alternator seems fine. Belt's still on there, wires good, bearing still only a little growl. It's almost out of fuel, so I fill up. But the gas guage doesn't move either.... And it starts right up, cranking at full speed, dispite the guage reading 8 volts. So, it seems the two right most guages are dead, but all the rest of them (oil pressure, temp, speedo, tach, 4wd indicators, turn signals) still work fine. WTF???? Do they have a different grounds for those two guages?

[[HTi]Johnson]

Grounds? You should clean them and add some from your engine to frame and a fatty from neg battery post to engine. I'd think the fuel pump ground would be farther away than the alt's.