How To Calibrate Your Tiger Instruments
By Cullen Bennett
B9472658
September 17, 1999
Calibration Procedure:
Fuel System:
To calibrate the Fuel system park your vehicle on flat ground (a partially filled tank is preferable). Jack up the passenger side and sliding under the car, disconnect the fuel line from the output side of the fuel pump. Reconnect a short length of rubber hose (3-4 ft.) and run it into a gas can sitting next to the car. Lower the car so that it is sitting on all four wheels on flat ground. Turn on the ignition switch (or just power up the fuel pomp through some other mechanism being careful to not make sparks). Run the pump until it quits pumping fuel. Turn the power off to the fuel pump, jack it up and reconnect the original fuel line as it was originally installed. Now, pour exactly 2 gallons of the gas back into your tank. This is your reference point so you can choose whatever value that you want to "calibrate" your system for. Connect the adjustable regulator into the system and adjust the "pot" for a reading on the gage that is exactly equal to the amount of gas put back into the tank. In my case it was 2 gallons. Using a digital voltmeter read the voltage on the output of the new regulator. As mentioned previously it should be somewhere around 9.5 Volts +/- a little. Your gas gage is now calibrated and you can pour the remainder of the gas back into the tank. When my tank that is calibrated to 2 gallons is completely full (to the point of running out of the filler) the gage reads just over 11 gallons. It is inaccurate, but I don't care since it is the other end of the operating range that is critical.
Temperature System:
When setting up the temperature, I would recommend buying a new sender, especially if it is an old unit that you have had for quite a while. But, that is just my personal preference. The calibration of the temperature system can easily be accomplished with the use of a thermocouple junction and a precision thermometer. I built mine several years ago when I had a need to measure some really high temperatures very accurately. An electronics manufacturer "Analog Devices" makes a single integrated circuit that is the heart of this measuring device. It is not very expensive (something like $18 in qty of 1) and when used in conjunction with either a "Chromel/Alumel", "Iron/Constantine" junction a very precise measuring instrument can be produced. I used a small liquid crystal 4 digit readout display from Radio Shack to display the temperature. So, for less than about $50 I had the equivalent of a $1000 instrument, or you can borrow an accurate thermocouple from someone to complete the setup. (If anyone is interested, this could be the topic for another article.)
Anyway, so much for the digression.
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