Yet another fuel guage question...

[ascuro]

My fuel gauge reads empty all the time. If I unplug the sender wire from the fuse panel, it reads past full. If I ground the sender wire, it goes back to empty. Does it sound like my gauge/gauge resistor is at fault? Or my sender?

 

[screamer]

I'm still trying to figure mine out. I thought the sender wire went straight to the gauge with a "hot wire" coming from a "switched" source. then there is a third wire at the gauge that is a ground. So the gauge has a Hot wire, a ground and then the connection to the sender.

 

[goldwing2000]

ascuro: The gauge is working perfectly. It sounds like your sender is stuck at the bottom. Either that or the wire inside the tank is shorted to ground where it wraps about the mounting strut. Either way you're going to have to pull out the sender.

screamer: the gas gauge sender is a variable resistor to ground. The gauge needs a full power and a full ground so it has something to compare the variable resistance to.

 

[screamer]

So which post on the back of the factory gas gauge is the ground. Which one is connected to the sender and which one is connected to a power source? I hooked up an after market gauge back by the fuel tank and it read 1/4 full. I put 10 more gallons in the tank and it read almost 3/4 full. So the problem has to be someplace up front in the harness or the the curcuit board. I'd like to try this with the factory gauge but I don't know which post on the back of the gauge is for what.

 

[ascuro]

Ah, thanks, just wanted to make sure. I actually went down to pick up a new sender today...grabbed a gauge resistor too anyways though, since it cost less than the gas to get there did, hehe.

 

[goldwing2000]

So which post on the back of the factory gas gauge is the ground. Which one is connected to the sender and which one is connected to a power source? I hooked up an after market gauge back by the fuel tank and it read 1/4 full. I put 10 more gallons in the tank and it read almost 3/4 full. So the problem has to be someplace up front in the harness or the the curcuit board. I'd like to try this with the factory gauge but I don't know which post on the back of the gauge is for what.

I don't know off hand which is which but it should be fairly easy to figure out with a test light or an ohm meter.

 

[dyeager535]

So which post on the back of the factory gas gauge is the ground. Which one is connected to the sender and which one is connected to a power source?

Pull the cluster out and trace the PCB, compare to the connector wiring. Easy.