Gas Gauge

DougC · Post by **DougC** » Sat Jul 04, 2009 11:14 am

My '77 spider has a gas gauge issue. When it's full it seems to work fine, but once it gets close to the 1/2 mark it starts to bounce back and forth and eventually just goes to E and stays there. I'm thinking the problem is the sending unit. Do you agree?

Thanks.

So Cal Mark · Post by **So Cal Mark** » Sat Jul 04, 2009 1:15 pm

the sending unit has a series of very fine wires that tend to wear out, especially at about half tank. Seems that most people keep that level of fuel and the float arm isn't dampened, so it bounces as the fuel sloshes and eventually wears the wires out

rlux4 · Post by **rlux4** » Sat Jul 04, 2009 3:55 pm

The float arm isn't dampened

How does it stay dry in all that wet gas???

Ron

So Cal Mark · Post by **So Cal Mark** » Sat Jul 04, 2009 7:43 pm

I think you've been too close to exploding cherry bombs and are suffering from exposure to black powder

DougC · Post by **DougC** » Mon Jul 06, 2009 12:16 am

Cool, thanks Mark. So do I have to pull the fuel tank to get the sending unit out?

-Doug

Lex · Post by **Lex** » Mon Jul 06, 2009 12:20 am

I'm having the same issue, or close to it, just add in the fact that (by chance you may not have noticed it) at night that the gas gauge back light will go out and kick back on during your "back and forth" stage...?

But in my case this could just be because my cars wiring makes spaghetti look logical

hope I'm helping the discussion more then hurting getting your problem being solved....

DougC · Post by **DougC** » Mon Jul 06, 2009 1:17 am

Lex wrote:I'm having the same issue, or close to it, just add in the fact that (by chance you may not have noticed it) at night that the gas gauge back light will go out and kick back on during your "back and forth" stage...?

But in my case this could just be because my cars wiring makes spaghetti look logical
hope I'm helping the discussion more then hurting getting your problem being solved....

Actually, none of my instrument lights is currently working. That's a future project!

Ernie · Post by **Ernie** » Mon Jul 06, 2009 9:53 am

Doug,

I recently repaired a wonky fuel sender. The low fuel light would come on but the gauge wouldn't work unless the tank was about half full. I thought it was a goner, but decided to take a look to see if I could figure out what went wrong with it. Now that I did, I wish I hadn't replaced the sender in one of my other cars without taking it apart first.

I started by bead-blasting the scale off of the metal tubing so I could see if there were any splits or holes. That cleaned the whole works up nicely -- looks like a new one.

Then I used an ohm meter to determine if the wires or the rheostat were OK or not. Both had continuity, but the slider for the fuel gauge part wasn't making good contact. After a little massaging of the contact, the whole sender seems to be working properly.

I realize soaking in gasoline might not make the last step meaningful, but I spayed the contact areas with some electronic contact cleaner.

It was pretty easy to get the thing apart and back together, so I'd recommend trying it. You're going to have to take it out to replace it anyway. After that it doesn't take long to figure out if it's salvageable.

Ernie

Jazgeek · Post by **Jazgeek** » Mon Jul 06, 2009 10:25 am

I think I paid about $15 from vicks for mine.... super easy replacement.

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