Turbo guage misleading

After taking my p-car out of hibernation from the winter, I decided to give her an engine wash. Original 3.0 turbo `76 and after spraying the engine bay area, i then hosed off the stuff with water pressure from my home`s plumbing. Waiting a few minutes( while enjoying a brewski) I then stated her up. Paying close attention to the gauges I noticed that the turbo guage(below the Tacometer) was showing full boost-even at idle. Can some please tell me if I have done anything wrong.? A few people have said that the water presure might of knocked a wire of a sensor.

wire off boost sender. it's right in the middle, lookin' at you.

Same thing happened to my 76 turbo. Also at one point smoke would come out of the steering column when I used the high beams. I miss that old car . Oh well, I love my 79 just as much.

Keith

thanks john and yargk for the reply, unfortunetly the wire where you mentioned is still on,and I tried to remove it to see what would happen and the engine stalled. I replaced it back, cranked the engine over and she started, but the boost guage still shows over 1. Any further ideas?

911Tas

if you killed the engine, you pulled the wire off the boost cutoff switch, not the boost gauge sender. the cutoff switch is the little white one. the boost gauge sender is 1 1/2" in height and diameter, and often has a red rubber sleeve on it. they're next to each other.

thanks for the reply john, I will be taking the car out tomorrow and fooling around with the switch that you mentioned, I'll let you know the outcome. Thanx

911tas

hi john, I took my babe out today,somthing about the open road and a turbo pushing you along. I looked at the sender switch that you suggested might be the culprit of my problems,the sender has a white base with a black part on top, it is held in place with a 3/4 metal clip.I removed this clip and pulled the connector of to see what would happen, the guage still showed the needle moving all the way to full boost. The one next to it on the right seem to be some sort of a vacuum line. I went into the tach and looked at the back connections and this is how they are hooked up... On the far left, two black/red stripe wires leading into one connection. Next over black/purple stripe. the next one is bare and the last on the right is brown.I did forget to mention to you that I had the guages removed for a liitle spring time cleaning, perhaps i did somthing there and not realized it.
I would appreciate your input here.

hi john! I took the babe out today and had great ride with it, I still have the boost showing in full even when I turn the key on with out starting the engine. I removed the wires that go to the boost gauge sensor to see if they are dirty or a bad contact but found it o.k.
I checked the back of the tach. to see if there are any bad cennections and everthing seems to be alright.
Just to let you know, the wiring on the back is, where the four prongs come out, on the left one there are two Black/red strip wires leeding into one conecter, the one next to it is a Black/purple strip, the third one is empty and the fourth is Brown.
Can you tell me if these wires are on right.
preciate you reply.

911tas