Fuel gauge?

[Condor1970]

Ok, I got a full tank of gas, and the gauge reads nothing. I will fiddle with the wires tomorrow, as I may have knocked something loose from all the work I'm doing. However, if I need to replace the sender on the tank, how much of a chore is that?

 

[UncleWillie]

Replacing the sender is as easy as removing 5 screws and replacing them.
Getting AT the screws is a different story.

This is also NO Place for power tools. Battery powered or otherwise.

Pull the wire off the sender and short it to ground.
If the panel gauge does NOT swing to well over FULL, The sender is Not the problem.

 

[Condor1970]

What I did notice is that when I turn on the ignition, the gauge goes from E, then bottoms out.

 

[further]

Do you have access to the sender and the wires? If so, it's easy enough to pull out like uncle willie said and love the float to see if that moves the gauge. I would first verify your getting power to the sender then if so use a multi meter connected to the terminals on the sender and measure the ohms on the sender when the float is in the empty or full position. Should read between 25 to 225ohm I think. If it's not reading then your senders no good and can be replaced with a universal for under $50. I just did this myself and it's a very easy job. Just need to verify that it's the sender and not the gauge that's bad.

 

[garbageguy]

I had a similar situation where the gauge would "sort of" change as fuel was added and depleted. I cleaned the crud around the sender contacts, removed, cleaned and replaced the contacts and it's working fine now. My next move was going to be to check and replace the sender as mentioned above. My mechanic suggested trying this first as, I think, the corrosion and crud messes with the resistance and hence, the gauge reading.

 

[kjsAZ]

If you have to change the sender I'd use a www.wemausa.com one. They are a lot better than the usual lever type ones.

 

[Condor1970]

I took the sender out twice now, and cleaned it thoroughly, to no avail. The gauge still bottoms out, but will peg high when I touch the two wires together. I know the gauge works. Also, when installed, I shook the boat back and forth, and on rare ocassion the gauge would peg high with the sender installed. It's obvious, the sender is bad. I measured the tank from bottom to top, and got between 5-5/12".

So, I ordered a Wema 5" sender off Ebay. We'll see when it shows up.