Stupid Fuel Gauge

[Spectatohead]

I ran out of fuel again today. When I first got my car going after saving it I reconditioned the tank. I had it cleaned and coated and replaced the in tank fuel pump and gauge sender. The gauge reads almost 1/8 of a tank when I ran out. I hiked to a station and got a can with $10 of fuel. After dumping that in the gauge read almost 1/4 full. When I fill the tank it the gauge doesn't read all the way full. The needle does drop to E when the ignition is turned off. The gauge doesn't go far enough either direction so adjusting the at rest position of the needle probably won't help. Is it possible that too much resistance in the wiring between the sender and the gauge could cause this? I would like to be able to trust my instruments. The low fuel light has never worked and I replaced the bulb with a known good one.

Jim Clark
'80 TR8
'97 Maxima 5spd

[darrellw]

I wonder if something is keeping the float from dropping all the way? The low fuel light is triggered by the float arm hitting the stop.

Darrell Walker
66 TR4A IRS-SC CTC67956L
81 TR8 SATPZ458XBA406206
Vancouver, WA, USA

[Spectatohead]

That wouldn't explain why 2.5 gallons would make it read a quarter tank.

Jim Clark
'80 TR8
'97 Maxima 5spd

[darrellw]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by Spectatohead</i>

That wouldn't explain why 2.5 gallons would make it read a quarter tank.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Good point. Could it also be that you pickup sucks air before the tank is empty?

I have a spare gauge, if you want to try swapping that out, too.

Darrell Walker
66 TR4A IRS-SC CTC67956L
81 TR8 SATPZ458XBA406206
Vancouver, WA, USA

[FI Spyder]

There is a tab that the float arm rest on that you can adjust so it can mechanically drop lower lowering the gauge reading. May have to bend the arm float arm to get it to read higher at gauge as well. Some fiddling to do. Make sure your connections are clean both at sender end and on instrument panel. Don't know which on dash you just have to make sure every thing is clean there. There are three wires from sender, one is ground one is for gauge and one is for low fuel light. On the instrument panel there is also a delay unit that stops the low fuel light from flickering off and on as the fuel sloshes around in the tank. It's connections must be good as well as the unit itself. Not looking at the diagram you could probably bypass it to take it out of the circuit to confirm if it's good or bad. Grounding the low fuel light wire at tank should activate the circuit.

I feel for you. It's hard to keep those V-8 tanks full.[:D]



- - -TR7 Spider - - - 1978 Spitfire- - - - 1976 Spitfire - - 1988 Tercel 4X4 - Kali on Integra - 1991 Integra - Yellow TCT

[Spectatohead]

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Century Gothic, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by FI Spyder</i>


I feel for you. It's hard to keep those V-8 tanks full.[:D]

<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></font id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">

Yeah, my own fault. I had just been enjoying opening up the secondaries on the 4-barrel right before I ran out. It was fun while it lasted.[:p]

Jim Clark
'80 TR8
'97 Maxima 5spd

[Triumph TR7V8 coupé]

Hi,

My low fuel light blinked yesterday, went to the petrol station and poured 45 litres in it. Engine is comsuming prox 13 litres/100km so the light doesnt give me any excuse missing a petrol station.

Greetings, J.

[jclay (RIP 2018)]

You should adjust the sender before you put the sender in the tank. Hook up the wires and hold the sender in the correct position. Let someone read the gauge for you . Let the sender rest on the metal stop. If it reads empty (with the power on) then you are good. If it reads higher than empty, then carefully bend the stop tab down. As you bend the tab, you can see the gauge move down.

Once you have got the gauge reading empty, lift the float to it's highest position. If the gauge does not ready full, replace the gauge. You cannot adjust the full position.

Clay

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