Re: Gas Tank Sender
a--84,
Welcome. If your gas guage was reading empty at all times, that might means a variety of things such as a broken sending wire, a broken ground wire, a bad sending unit or even a bad guage. However, since it is reading full all of the time, that implies (at least to me) that the sending wire, the ground wire and the guage is probably OK. Therefore, I have a tendency to suspect the sending unit itself. There are a couple of different types of sending units, but none of them are rocket science. Here is a link to an iboats page that shows a couple of different ones.
http://www.iboats.com/Sending_Units/dm/*******.492132386--category_id.238171--search_type.category--**********.437823062--view_id.238171
It could be that the sending unit has an electrical problem, or that the float itself is somehow stuck in the full position. The sending units on my boat are easily accessible and I have pulled them out on a couple of different occasions. My approach would be to pull the sending unit, inspect it, hook it up while outside of the tank and see if it works. When reassembling, note that the bolt hole pattern is probably not going to be symmetric. That is to say, the bolt holes may only line up in one particulr orientation. This is to ensure that the float has a proper (and clear) direction of movement. During reassembly, note that the mounting screws might have small gaskets or o-rings underneath them. You want to exercise care when reinstalling the unit. After all, you don't want any gas leaking out into your bilge. Hope this helps - Woodnaut
EDITED NOTED - a--84, when you mentioned that your tank gauge reads full at all times, I assumed that when the ignition switch was turned on that the gauge moved from EMPTY to FULL. If that is the case, then all of my comments above still apply. However, if the gauge reads FULL even when the ignition switch is OFF, then I would probably suspect the gauge as being defective. Generally these gauges go to zero - EMPTY - when they have no power on them. I apologize if this has caused any confusion - Woodnaut
