Fuel Gauge Questions

[msuguydon]

I have a new sender, checked all the wiring and the grounds.  

The Fuel Gauge will not register anything more than 1/8 of tank of fuel, even when the tank is full.

Any other suggestions on what to try?

58 Chevy

[enjenjo]

Sounds like a bad connection somewhere.

[Dave]

The ground is the big deal with fuel senders. But.. I could be the sender is just plain bad. I had an extra one laying around for vdo gauges and  with the cheap skate i am i put it in my coupe and guess what I ended up pulling the tank and using the one that came with the  ne gauges i put in the coupe. I still dont know what happened to the other one but.........
Dave :?:  :?:  :?:

[Pep]

I presume the sender and guage are matched....When the sender is installed, it has a rubber gasket under it. You need to run a wire from one of the mounting screws to a good ground point. If that is OK, then prove the guage is working correctly by touching the sender wire direct to ground for a few seconds. It should go past full fairly quickly. Don't leave it on for to long as it might burn out the guage. You could put a 100 ohm resistor is series with it if you want. It should go past half way at least. If all that is OK, then it's the sender itself. Is there a mechanical obstruction in the tank, like pick up to close fouling the float arm?.  I assume also it has been set up correctly, if that is OK then it needs to be taken out and  inspected and possibly replaced. You might see the resistive wire  or wiper arm broken.

[Ed ke6bnl]

I presume the sender and guage are matched....When the sender is installed, it has a rubber gasket under it. You need to run a wire from one of the mounting screws to a good ground point. If that is OK, then prove the guage is working correctly by touching the sender wire direct to ground for a few seconds. It should go past full fairly quickly. Don't leave it on for to long as it might burn out the guage. You could put a 100 ohm resistor is series with it if you want. It should go past half way at least. If all that is OK, then it's the sender itself. Is there a mechanical obstruction in the tank, like pick up to close fouling the float arm?.  I assume also it has been set up correctly, if that is OK then it needs to be taken out and  inspected and possibly replaced. You might see the resistive wire  or wiper arm broken.

I picked up a variable resister and  put and digital ohm meter on it and run it up and down within the ohms range of the fuel gage is set up for it that works the gage the problem is with the ground or sending unit or the maybe a mechanical problem with the sender and the tank.  good luck ED

[msuguydon]

Hey Guys:

Thanks for the trouble shooting tips.  Very good info.

Thanks Again

DG

[BFS57]

Hello;
I did the obvious! I wanted to see if it was the gage or the sender. So, I hooked up a new sender with a wire that would connect to the fuel gage. I then carefully un pluged the wire to the gage, replaced it with my new wire (I'm sitting in the front seat with it), used a wire with alligator clips to ground the sending unit. Next I turned the key on and moved the float up and down, the gage worked perfect!
Next, I know it's not the wire coming from the sender, (just re-wired my car) Crawled under the car, made sure my sender was grounded and still no gage! so, next, I have to put in sending unit #3! What a pain in the double *!
Old cars, what more can I say!

People always stop me and say "thats a nice 57 Chevy you drive" I answer, "It's something to lay under and cuss at"!

Bruce

[MrMopar64]

I have a new sender, checked all the wiring and the grounds.  

The Fuel Gauge will not register anything more than 1/8 of tank of fuel, even when the tank is full.

Any other suggestions on what to try?

58 Chevy

If by chance you had your tank cleaned and coated make sure it's grounded....... cuz it won't ground through the coating...never mind how I know this     only took bout an hour or so   and luckily before I took the tank back out to change the sender  

MM64  

[EMSjunkie]

I had the same problem when I wired my coupe.

had to reposition the sender, the float was binding against the pick-up tube

works fine now.

Vance