Fuel gauge reading wrong (1 Viewer)

[MadMace]

It looks like the problem with my original gauge is the small wire that melted into the plastic as seen in the picture below. This wire is supposed to be free floating. Because it got fixed into the plastic, it bent the small arm that moves the needle.

Most important findings for me are that the resistance of the gauge should be approx. 25.5, not 55. And second, the needle, when the engine is off, should go down to the mid portion of the "E".

Hope all this helps somebody down the road!!

 

[MadMace]

I want to know the solution for this because I'm in the same boat. I'll be on E and only fill 13 gallons. Pretty annoying.

I bet your problem is at your sender. Pull the sender out of the tank through the inspection port in the back. If you pull the sender and remove the cover (if you need, post some pictures after you pull it and I can direct you on how to remove the cover on the sender), there is a winding of wire that a small armature rides over. If the continuity of that wire (i.e. break in the wire) gets broken, you can get what you have happening happen. From what I have read, this is not uncommon.

 

[boredfast]

I bet your problem is at your sender. Pull the sender out of the tank through the inspection port in the back. If you pull the sender and remove the cover (if you need, post some pictures after you pull it and I can direct you on how to remove the cover on the sender), there is a winding of wire that a small armature rides over. If the continuity of that wire (i.e. break in the wire) gets broken, you can get what you have happening happen. From what I have read, this is not uncommon.

I will do that... my truck might be down for cooling system issues at the moment, so a good time to check.

 

[joecat66]

i replaced my gauge w/a new one for a 62 and it made no difference my next little project is to install a new sending unit which is in my garage off ebay
brand new from the fj depot for 99 dollars. mine reads full when full and empty when around 1/2 and is wonky in between

 

[poptart]

i replaced my gauge w/a new one for a 62 and it made no difference my next little project is to install a new sending unit which is in my garage off ebay
brand new from the fj depot for 99 dollars. mine reads full when full and empty when around 1/2 and is wonky in between

This is basically the same issue I have. Swapping gauges and senders made no difference for me.

 

[poptart]

So for the issue of the fuel gauge reading empty while still having half a tank I can suggest two things for sure. Inspect your sender the sender is basically just fancy variable resistor. You measure can use a multimeter and measure the resistance with the float all the way down and all the way up. Annoying thing is the numbers in the manuals are wrong.

My spare one was reading ~63.6ohms at empty and ~14.8 ohms on full.

The second thing I would suggest is checking the connector the to sender and ground from the sender to the body. The sender ground is the brown wire. It runs from the sender back to the harness in the rear quarter panel and ends up grounding to the body under the rear tail gate. See pics below. This ground runs through two connectors that you might want to inspect as well. Both in the driver side rear quarter panel. The big blue one near the tail light and the one for the sender and fuel pump (FJ62) near the wheel well.

I don't know if I have fixed my gauge yet, but I had to replace a lot of my wiring harnesses recently. So I'll find out if there's more to do when I get everything back together.


Fuel Sender ground is the brown wire. Disregard my weatherpak connector....

If the connector is corroded you can disassemble the connector and soak the spade clips in some vinegar, salt, flour mix and it'll clean them up perfectly.

 

[cruiserdenmark]

I am still having this problem. Gauge seems to be fine, replaced the wiring as suggested, and changed the sender unit. My gauge still reads about 3/4 full when full and empty when only half empty.

Did anyone have any luck fixing this?

 

[himhj60]

I have bend the arm of float.

 

[cruiserdenmark]

I have bend the arm of float.

Brilliant! how much? Do you by any chance have a picture?

 

[himhj60]

I bent over just a little. No images left. I bought a new sender, but I thought it might have been bent during shipping, so I bent it myself.My method may be wrong, so I can't take responsibility.