Fuel gauge and sending unit?

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Joined
Dec 2, 2009
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Location
Tomball, Texas
I bought a replacement fuel sending unit for SOR for the factory fuel gauge. The gauge however is not working, will the sending unit work with any generic fuel gauge? or are they sync'd in some manner?
 
The sender resistance needs to match the meter requirements. Try shining up the voltage regulator contacts in the fuel meter and then see if it will work. Do you have power at the sender? If so, what happens to the meter when you momentarily ground the sender wire?
 
what are all the posts on the rear of the gauge cluster for, if the harness connects through the round plug?




They secure the instrument to the printed circuit board.

:meh:


If you do not have a ground, you do not have a completed circuit.
 
This is what connects to my combination meter ... but then mine's a 1979:

CombinationMeter2.webp


The fuel gauge wire is the yellow-with-red-stripe on my round connector

And this is a slightly more recent BJ42 combination meter:

CombinationMeterBJ42a.webp

:cheers:
CombinationMeter2.webp
CombinationMeterBJ42a.webp
 
I will try cleaning it a little more

Are you familiar with the meter voltage regulator? It looks like a tiny strip of metal with wire wound around it that touches a screw tip with a sharp point. You want to shine up the contact with the sharp point.
 
How do you test the fuel sending unit to see if it's working?

So my fuel gauge isn't working. I thought I would start with the ground first. I tried it at it's current location, no joy. I created a jumper and grounded it to another location, no joy. I tried it in the middle of the run, no joy.

It would appear my ground is not the issue. I was wondering if theres a way to test the sending unit before I spend $145 on a new fuel gauge?
 
How many threads are you going to start on this topic?

:rolleyes:



See post #2

Have any input?
 
I thought I would start with the ground first. I tried it at it's current location, no joy. I created a jumper and grounded it to another location, no joy. I tried it in the middle of the run, no joy.

What did you ground?
What happened?
Do you have power on the sender wire?
Do you have power at the gauge?
 
We are also getting power at the sending unit from the gauge cluster.... yet the gas guage is not moving, and I have about a 1/2 tank of gas in there

Should I be grounding from the sending unit to anywhere on the truck? How should that ground be connected?

It would appear that the yellow red wire coming out of the round plug is not completing the current to the tank, so that wire must have gotten soldered wrong or something, so I created a jumper wire that is connected on the back of the gauge cluster to the fuel power post and then connected to the sending unit, that is where we showed the sender getting power. We then grounded the sender to one of the seat bracket bolts. So I guess I either have my ground messed up or the gauge is actually broken.
 
Last edited:
Okay, we finally got it.... man this electronic stuff is hard to figure out, although hindsight, I probably should have wired this thing myself instead of having a neighbor do it, that way i would have been a little more familiar with it.

Anyways, here's what we had to do in order to get it to work. I created 2 jumper wires that connect to the rear of the gauge cluster, the power to the fuel sender being on the passenger side of the fuel gauge (if sitting in the seat looking at the front of the gauge cluster) and the ground being on the drivers side. We then connected the power to the tab connector and touched the ground to one of the sender screws and it worked!

Now I just need to run some permanent wires or dig in to the the bundle to determine what and where things went wrong

IMG_5478.jpg


IMG_5479.jpg


IMG_5480.jpg



A BIG THANKS to spangly and lostmarbles, thanks for sharing that pdf, and the pics of the gauge cluster
 
Ok, so you were getting no response out of you fuel gauge?


What, if anything was the Temp gauge doing?


As I understand it, The power going to the Fuel gauge, also provides power to the temp gauge, so if your Temp gauge is working, that would mean, either you have a bad gauge or a bad ground concerning the fuel gauge...

Feel free to jump in gurus and set me straight..
 
yes the temp gauge was working, but when we tried to test power at the sending unit, we got zippo. When we wired the truck, we used the original round plug, with the older wires and spliced in the new wires to match, and then did the same on the other end.

I did however solder and heat shrink each splice and then taped them, so I guess something just got a bad connection somewhere.

Again, I should have just did the wiring myself.... hindsight is 20/20, Ill know for the next time
 
More electrical woes tonight. Seems that for some reason my horn isn't working. The fuse was blown, we put a new one in and it honks for a few minutes and then blows again??

We seem to be having an issue with the horn and blinkers. The blinkers come on and just stay solid? I know they are getting a ground, because the hazards work and flash just fine.... isn't the connection that makes the hazards flash the same for that which makes the blinkers flash?

AAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! why isn't anything working. It seems that some of the main things that will keep me from getting a inspection sticker are the things that I just can't figure out or get to work.


Ignition without coil/battery bypass
Horn won't work, (it's getting 12V at the column and at the fuse block)
Blinkers won't flash
Rear side lights won't power up
Wiper motor works when connected directly to battery, but won't work at switch

I think I'm starting to experience the "hate" part of the relationship
 
Wow, I think you had it right when you said that you should have done the wiring!
 
The reason that the turn signals don't blink is that one or more bulb on both sides has a bad connection or a bad ground so that it isn't sinking enough current to trip the flasher. They blink fine on hazards because there are 4 bulbs instead of two.
 
bad bulbs or connectors... both rear signals and front turn signals are all brand new?? When you say connection, do you mean at the fuse block end or the signals end?

Isnt the ground for the hazards, that same as the ground for the blinkers? I mean if the hazards are working fine and grounded out, should the ground for the blinkers be fine? Why does the amount of bulds matter?
 

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