Gas Guage question

[Jimmyz123_]

I installed a new gas guage because the boat I am restoring did not have one. Anyway I followed the instructions to the best of my ability, with one exception. On the back of the guage it says to connect a lead to the ignition switch, I instead connected it to a regular power switch. It's grounded to the battery, and of course a lead going from the tank to the guage. What am I doing wrong here? Any help would be great. Thanks,

 

[peleg]

Re: Gas Guage question

What is it doing wrong? Does it not move at all or pegged on full, etc?

 

[TIJA99_470_merc]

Re: Gas Guage question

Can I jump in on this problem too, After I cleaned out plastice 14gallon Gas Tank

I have one that is pegged to FULL when the tanks is only 1/4 full or near empty. I switched the ground wire on the Tank side with a pink wire and it pegs EMPTY with 1/4 tank in it?

Help me too please

 

[Jimmyz123_]

Re: Gas Guage question

It pegs to full. I know I have about a 1/4 of a tank of gas for an 18 gallon tank. I had it grounded twice originally and the guage was going all over the place. I took the other ground off, and it pegged up to full. Should I unground the tank, and just ground the guage?

 

[iwombat]

Re: Gas Guage question

You need to ground the tank, if for no other reason than to discharge any static built-up on the tank itself. The reason they ask you to pull power from the control is so that it only comes on when the key is turned and doesn't drain the battery down. Power is power any source will do for the gauge as long as you're willing to live with the consequences. Is your tank float stuck maybe? You should be able to take a resistance reading between signal and ground and watch it change as you ad gas.

 

[peleg]

Re: Gas Guage question

It pegs to full. I know I have about a 1/4 of a tank of gas for an 18 gallon tank. I had it grounded twice originally and the guage was going all over the place. I took the other ground off, and it pegged up to full. Should I unground the tank, and just ground the guage?

If the gauge pegs full, then essentially the sender terminal is connected to ground at some point. I acutually had this problem with a boat that I was given not too long ago. I spent a lot of time trying to determine if the sender wire was pinched and shorted to ground some where, only to find out that the ring terminal on the back of the gauge was bridging the sender terminal to the ground terminal.

Anyway if you are still having the full reading meter problem, disconnect the sender wire from the sender. If it is still pegged full, then that wire is grounded somwhere along its run through the boat or on the back of the gauge itself. If it shows empty instead, then you have a shorted sender.

 

[Jimmyz123_]

Re: Gas Guage question

I'll check this out. Thank you for the advice.

 

[Jimmyz123_]

Re: Gas Guage question

Well there is a lesson to every problem that we work on. Thank you all for the information, it all helped me to find what I think may have, and probably was the problem. When I was grounding the guage I was actually connecting it to a power source, once I connected the guage to the correct ground, it gave me a reading that I believe. Because my boat is park on a slope it should be reading empty, and it is. I'm sure once I move it to a more level ground, it will show that I less than a 1/4 of a tank. That's why I love this place, there is always someone who knows something, and they are willing to lend a hand.

James