Gas Gauge...It worked FINE before! (1 Viewer)

[Iron_Pig]

Another victim of the 8-month-rebuild. I had the tank reburbished by a reputable shop. It sat for the whole time on the floor of the shop,sealed. It did get wet once on the top, causing the top of the sending unit to get some surface rust. I checked the connections today and they seem fine. I did run out of gas in the yard today so it must not had much in it.I added one or two gallons and it didn't rise the needle a bit.

Do the sending units go bad just sitting dry in a tank? What should I check next?

 

[cruiserdan]

Have you ever run it dry before and put a couple of gallons in it to see what it read? It may be that there isn't enough fuel in the tank to raise the float.

 

[Iron_Pig]

No,Dan. I had it broke down for 6 months before the engine was rebuilt. I just had 68 miles on it when the gas tank leaked which caused me to strip the interior to remove it. That lead to the discovery that there wasn't very much tub left under the rubber mats. That lead to the 8-month tub rebuild which is now complete.Now I'm trying to fix all the aggravating stuff like this gas gauge that worked just fine BEFORE the rebuild.

 

[cruiserdan]

Is it possible to pull the sender without dropping the tank? The parts catalog looks like maybe you can't. If you can, you could hook a meter to it and swing the float to see if the resistance changes. Or, I suppose the arm could be stuck. Could the wires have been knocked off when the tank was re-installed? I'm kinda hip-shootin' and thinking out loud so pardon me if you already thought of any of this.

 

[Plowboy]

Is this on a 40? Did you reinstall the ground wire on the sending unit? On a 40 the sending unit can be accessed by removing the passenger seat and pulling out the rubber plug on the tank cover. If you remove the sending unit to test by swinging the float be sure to have it grounded. No reason that sitting for a while should make the sending unit go bad. I would look at the ground wire first.

 

[Iron_Pig]

Yeah,it's a FJ40. I'm heading for the wires,for sure.Thanks

 

[IDave]

2 gallons wouldn't raise my gauge above E. I'd fill it up and see what happens.

 

[hammerhead]

You need more fuel than that to make your gauge move. According to the factory manual the float stops 44mm from the bottom of the tank. Mine needs over 4 gals. to budge the gauge off the E.

 

[Iron_Pig]

MAN, you guys are AWESOME !!!
I added about 4 to 5 gallons of fuel and the needle started moving. Thanks alot...'til next time