Anyone got a match ???

BillyBob0780 said
Hi again (groan I hear you say)… Starting problem sorted. Thank you it was down to linkage adjustment. I must have tweaked something when, I was bolting it back together.
Electrical issues are still there though. The ammeter is still going berserk when revved, the fuel gauge still doesn’t register.
I have checked the earth to sender all good, tried and extra earth still no good. I had checked the sender prior to refitting it by moving the float and checking its operation against the gauge and I checked the resistance and it was within the parameters of operation. The temp gauge DOES work. I replaced the burnt wire and fuse link with new cable and a maxi fuse holder and went for a 50amp fuse with no issues. Now I replaced the interior light bulb and noted that it started to literally smoke! Car switched off and fire checked completed..
Has anyone got any advice of is it time for an auto electrician ( if you can find one in the UK these days ) to take over and consider a rewire ?

Ignore the sender for now - you need to fix the alt/charging issue. It's possible something else fried when the fusible link turned to smoke, or fried and caused the fusible link to smoke. Probably a coincidence that it happened while you were replacing the sender.

You need to put a volt meter on the battery and see if it goes up when your amp gauge does. Personally, I would not run the engine with the alternator hooked up. I'd suggest disconnecting one of the field wires and then with the volt meter hooked up, touch the disconnected wire back to it's terminal. If it goes well over 15v, you've got a problem in the charging system that's going to burn the car down sooner or later. You can also leave the field unhooked and measure the voltage across the field wires. If you get excessive charging volts, but normal field volts, then the regulator is likely not the issue. If you get abnormal field volts, then it's likely not an alternator issue but a voltage regulator issue.

If you do that test and let us know what you measure, folk will be able to help you get it sorted.

In my experience, a bad regulator will tend to not charge and a shorted alt will tend to over-charge or cause a direct-short that pulls the voltage low enough to kill the engine. I've experienced an alternator first hand which worked fine until revved too. But only proper testing will tell you what needs replaced - blindly replacing parts often results in crappy replacement parts causing new issues or masking the root cause.