Fuel Gauge Frustrations - UPDATE

[Scuda11]

Re: Fuel Gauge Frustrations - UPDATE

Thanks guys. <br /><br />Rick:

does everything else that requires a ground work? If so, your terminal board ground is good.

--- The only other thing I have on that board is a orange wire (doesnt go to anything) and a Gray wire that has 3 wires in it (not sure what that is)<br /><br />

I would suspect that there is a break in the ground wire from the sender to the gauge.

--- I dont have a ground wire going from sender to gauge. The grounds I have 1 for the sender goes to the board, and my ground for the gauge comes from the board also. Is that wrong?<br /><br />Richard:

I took Rick's advice and ran wire across floor to my welded ground to the G on the guage

--- Where is my "welded ground"?<br /><br />Thanks again guys for any help, much appreciated.

 

[Scuda11]

Re: Fuel Gauge Frustrations - UPDATE

the gray wire that I mentioned is for my bilge pump, and yes it works fine.<br /><br />SO I guess my board is good and only need to know if I am wiring it right.<br /><br />TIA,<br />Scott

 

[Boatin Bob]

Re: Fuel Gauge Frustrations - UPDATE

Actually Scott the sender wire to the gauge is really a ground wire. The sender takes the tank ground and puts it through the variable resistor attached to the float and feeds that to the gauge. Is your tank metal or plastic, still sounds like the sender is not grounded properly.

 

[Scuda11]

Re: Fuel Gauge Frustrations - UPDATE

Its plastic Bob. The sending unit is brand new, just put it in a few weeks ago. so just to clarify, the ground on the tank and the ground on the gauge do NOT have to be on the same terminal right? Just grounded period?<br /><br />Also, when I was using my fluke to do some tests, I was using the housing mount screws from my throttle as a ground, and it seemed to work, could I try that for a ground or does it need to go to the terminal board?<br /><br />Thanks!

 

[Richok]

Re: Fuel Gauge Frustrations - UPDATE

You don't have the welded ground if you have a plastic tank. It still sounds like ground to me. I could be wrong. Can you get to both ends of the ground wire and hook your fluke and do an ohm test to see whether your ground wire is broken anywhere. You may have already done this. While your at it if you have not alread ohm the sender wire.

 

[Boatin Bob]

Re: Fuel Gauge Frustrations - UPDATE

All of your grounds should somehow be tied back to the negative side of the battery whether they go to a terminal board, a buss bar or some other connection but a ground should be a ground. Somehow a ground wire has to be attached to the senders mounting flange and then the sender wire goes to the gauge to complete the circuit. I thnk a lot of the posts above were thinking you had an I/O instead of an outboard plus a metal tank instead of plastic. Using the ohm meter as Richard said, put one clip on the negative post of the battery and the other on the terminal board and then on the dender mounting flange, you should zero or close to it ohms, if not then you have an open circuit or bad connection.

 

[jmeydenbauer]

Re: Fuel Gauge Frustrations - UPDATE

Just to confirm, you do have 2 wires running to your sending unit right? One wire goes from the center terminal on the sending unit to your gauge and the other wire should attach to the metal base plate of the sending unit and go to a good ground.<br /><br />Confirm ground by putting your OHM meter across the metal base plate of the sending unit and the negitive terminal of your battery. Do you have 0 ohms? If 0 ohms, ground is good, if not get this corrected. <br /><br />Test how much resistance is between the base of the sending unit and the center post where the sending wire goes. Power should be off. You should have ~50-140 ohms. I don't have the exact numbers on this but it should be in this range depending at what level the float is. If it's open or 0 ohms, the sending unit is bad. <br /><br />For those with metal tanks, you'll notice that the rubber gasket on the new sending unit contains a staple in it. Leave the staple in, this will provide ground between the sending unit and the tank assuming your tank is grounded. Sometimes the screws holding the sending unit on corrode and won't provide a good contact.