Volt Gauges 1990 Carver 3807

[Washopay]

Long story short. After a battery fire (due to a faulty connection at the terminal) I had my generator and all batteries replaced. I am familair with my mechanic and for the most part find him fair but others have not had the same success. He's relatively new at the game. Upon completion of the job, my volt gauges are not working. Mechanic contends that there is power to them but the gauges are faulty. I never had a problem before right up to the day of the fire. Few questions:
1. Does this sound like a problem resulting from the fire? It seems very odd that BOTH gauges went faulty during the down time waiting on the repair.
2. Can you short-out and fry a gauge?
3. Can those gauges still be sourced? He's telling me we will have to replace them with aftermarket gauges (which will look goofy as heck).
4. The new genny exhausts out the stbd. The old genny out the port. The old exhaust hose (that leads to the exhaust box) is still in place but capped off. Until he capped it off, there was a backflow of exhaust into the engine room when the port engine was running. I'm thinking it would be safer if removed completely and the access hole into the exhaust box closed up securely. Am I being picky?
Thanks guys.

[AaHubb]

My 404 has breakers for the voltmeters, located on the battery selector panel. You may have a similar setup. If your mechanic is sure there is Voltage to the meter did he measure directly across the meter, could be a bad ground connection.
..Aaron

[Viper]

If the tech did indeed measured 12 volts at the gages, then they are toast. It's possible to short them out if polarity was reversed at one point. I haven't had to replace that kind of gage. Have you tried contacting Carver about the gages? They might be able to help or point you in the right direction. Also try Great Lakes Skipper on line.

I'm wondering why there would be a problem hooking up the exhaust to the same place. Even if it's coming off the opposite side of the new genny, I don't see why it couldn't be routed back to the starboard side. I would not be happy with what they've done but I haven't seen the setup. Having said that, it would have to be the worst circumstance preventing me from going back to the original exhaust point.