1983 Scarab- why two fuel gauges???
 

Hi all, new subscriber here..I've come to this site many times for technical answers but just now here officially! I'm renovating a 1983 Scarab 26 footer. It's a little more difficult because it's not a production boat. It was built for the Miami police department and I can't find any information for it nor have I been able to find another one.

Anyway, the boat has (well is getting) two 350's. It has full set of Teleflex gauges for each engine, four gauges on the left, five on the right. The fifth on the right is the voltmeter for the main electrical circuit. My question is why are there two fuel gauges? There are two fuel pickups next to each other in the tank in the normal location just forward of the engine compartment in the rear of the cockpit. Each pickup has a line and valve to feed each engine with electrical connections and wiring to the two gauges. The sending units are right next to each other in the same tank. I cannot understand at all why there are two gauges.

Has anyone seen this before?

Sure there aren't two tanks?

No I'm not absolutely sure, but Theres only one fuel filler location, I can see the fill tube going to the fuel tank. There are two fuel pickups from the one tank with wires for the gauges, but they are in the same tank right next to each other. I noticed your boat on your profile, my buddy has a 1990 (I think) Pantera 24. very cool boat.

I would be suprised if either of those senders still worked properly lol .
May be a baffle seperating the tank.compartments internally ,if its aluminum or perhaps the second gauge is for redundancy. Wouldn't be a bad idea to pull one or both if nothing else ,to see how clean the tank is on a old boat and replace senders ,and sender seals

I agree, I'll definitely pull them. The valves need replaced anyway they are both frozen. It is an aluminum tank and I was thinking it may possibly be separated by something also, just didn't know if someone might know for sure. I've been putting it off because I'm dreading what the inside of the tank looks like. It was last running in 1993...so........lol

Also the boat has three tachometers and no speedometer. Could the third tach have been used with some sort of sender to indicate speed? I'm not familiar with how a boat speedometer works ...not going to put one in, I'll use gps.

If the third tach has the "0" at the 12:00 position, it is an engine sync. When both motors are turning the same rpm, the needle will point to the "0".

Well three tachs and two fuel gauge's....Hmmm trust issue's and rightfully so better keep a close eye on her....:party-smiley-048: