Possible electrical problem, or Subaru quirk??
 

Right I`m nearly at the end of engine change on my 1995 WRX and am yet to get her running, bought the car with a dead engine.

BUT I`ve noticed this happening, as I`m getting to the stage of starting.
I changed the oil and was going to crank over with the crank and cam sensor unplugged, ignition on and I stopped going any further when the fuel gauge didn`t move. Hey ho, no fuel so went to the local Shell garage and bought 10 litres of V-Power. Put the fuel in, and went to start again.

Ignition on, fuel gauge doesn`t move, but weirdly the rev counter goes to just under 1000 rpm.

The engine cranks over nicely, then I ran into Injector seal issues, mainly like not having any lol. So flooding the engine and hydrolocking it, so I`ve not gone any further.
Injectors have new seals now from buying some and being given some (thanks Redwards) so will be trying again to start her tomorrow.

Is this electrical issue something I should be concerned with, or is it one of those things Scoobies do when you start them, that are just a quirk of the car??

So is your problem you fuel gauge not working or car not starting?

sounds like your fuel senders wired into your rev counter loom lol

Have you chopped into your wiring loomfor some reason? Probley not for an engine change!!!

Rev counter revs with engine, but think its been removed in the past and thinks that just under 1k is 0 lol.
Fuel gauge doesn`t want to work, so thats something I`m gonna have to look into.

for fuel gauge check sender unit in tank and wiring, find out which wire controls gauge and do a continuity test down it to check for breaks in wire. if u earth signal wire with ignition on it shud make gauge move. maybe bad wiring behind clocks if rev counter is playing up. cud be damaged and someone been there before so thats why its all reading wrong. iv a set of v2 / 3 clocks here that work if u wanna try clocks. im in merthyr. if car drives when u fixed flywheel protector bring it up, we can have a look.

Cheers bud. The whole dash has been off as there was a heater matrix leak lol. So will have all been off.

Need a MOT before I can go anywhere, and when done I`m considering a flocked dash, so would be an ideal time to take it apart and see whats what.
BUT have to get an MOT first, which should give me a list as long as your arm lol.

its pretty straight forward, especially with dash off. can see all wiring. MOT is a load of crap. even testers will tell u that, especially the ones in garage i work in lol. any probs give me a shout. ripped mine apart and rebuilt enough times now lol

Lol yeah, will see if I can get it done this week, then take it from there.