Fuel Sender Died. Now Pinned at Empty (1 Viewer)

[retinadoc]

Short of dropping the tank and replacing, is there anyway to resuscitate it? I tried a Techron bath hoping it was just build up on wires, but so far no luck.

Interestingly the gauge was working until my brother used my rig and put in several tanks of low octane gas.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Pighead]

Sometimes it helps to know what model and year you're having trouble with...

 

[Tancruiser]

Oh it’s always the brothers fault .

 

[retinadoc]

Sorry. '76 Chevota. I believe the gas tank is the original, but not 100% sure.

 

[Cat Scan]

Just curious, how did you determine the gauge or the electrical connections are not the problem.

 

[bikersmurf]

‘76 is under the passenger seat. It’s 4 large bolts to gain access. Remove the plastic cover and check the connections.

The sender will come out by removing 5 small screws. Dropping tank is unnecessary

 

[retinadoc]

PO replaced tub with an aluminum tub so tank is unfortunately not there.

 

[retinadoc]

I suppose it could be the gauge or connections, but it was my understanding that statistically it is more likely to be the sender when the gauge is stuck on empty and the needle never moves. Prior to totally failing the needle would take 5 minutes to rise on fill ups.

 

[Solace in Solitude]

Check the ground wire to the sender... you might be able to reach the sender, without dropping the tank.

Assuming it’s an oem ‘76 tank, hanging under the tub (from what you alluded to), the sender will be about 1/4 way back, from the front of the tank... about 6” from the passenger dude if the tank.

You could find the two sender wires (out in the open) and test the resistance... ‘76 was 120ohms empty and 17ohms full... that doesn’t help a lot if you don’t have any idea how much fuel is in the tank.

But, testing is easy and may provide insight...

If you have fuel in the tank and you register between 17 and 119, the sending is probably working... it may not be accurate.

To really test the sender, you will need to remove it from the tank.

Rudi (@bj40green) has everything you need to know about your fuel gauge in HERE.

You can search for “fuel gauge” in that thread.

Edit: you need to be sure you know what sender and gauge you have... are they both ‘76? Senders and fuel gauges are a matched pair... e.g. the gauge has to expect the ohm range that the sender sends.

 

[retinadoc]

 

[retinadoc]

Here is what the wiring coming off the sender looks like. The PO apparently used every color in the rainbow, so my search has not been very enlightening . Note the yellow/black wire dead ends to nowhere. Is this the issue?

 

[Solace in Solitude]

YB is supposed to be your oil pressure sender... YR is supposed to be your fuel sender.

Fuel sender uses only two wires

It could be that someone hooked up the wrong two wires... the YR would normally run from the fuel sender to the proper pin (for fuel gauge) on the round plug, on the back of your gauge cluster.

I can’t tell what this is... with the wires coming thru the floor... is there a hatch in the floor, to provide access to the sender?

It looks like you have 2-3 other sender holes in the floor...