New Gauge Or New Tank Sender?

[bigbad79]

ok so my brand new autometer fuel gauge is not reading my fuel tank level. it has power and is grounded. the sender wire is correctly connected (checked and re-checked) the gauge reads empty and when i turn the key the gauge barely moves off the "E". i've toyed with it for a month, is it safe to assume i need a new tank sender or should i replace the gauge assuming its faulty? and yes there is gas in the tank! oh and the ohms on the gauge are 73-12 which do match fords i belive.

 

[Runnin'OnEmpty]

BigBad79, it's probably a bad sender. You can check the gauge by touching the signal wire (from the sender) to ground. The gauge should then read full. If there's no movement, then the gauge is bad, if it moves to full, the sender is bad. Make sure you are grounding the signal wire and not the power wire, and don't do this near the tank because of the possibility of sparks.

 

[Ziggy]

Make sure you have the proper fuel gauge for Fords. If you have the wrong one, it will not register or it will read backwards.

 

[ffxcs08]

Make sure you have the proper fuel gauge for Fords. If you have the wrong one, it will not register or it will read backwards.

HAVE YOU CHECKED THE BRASS FLOAT ON THE SENDING UNIT? MINE HAD A LEAK AND OBVIOUSLY WOULDN'T FLOAT SO I WASN'T GETTING A READING. I PUT A NEW FLOAT ON AND IT NOW WORKS PERFECTLY. GOOD LUCK!

 

[79highrider]

I had this problem with my original fuel guage and I did what Runnin'On empty said and I found a bad wire on the sending unit and fixed it then two months later I started my truck, (knowing I had half a tank) and the guage went past the full mark then I went and filled the truck up and the guage went to empty and has been there ever since, could the wire have broke again?

 

[Runnin'OnEmpty]

79Highrider, I'd suspect you have a bad sender.

Filling the tank probably killed it.....

 

[89Bronco58]

how does filling the tank **** the sender?

 

[Runnin'OnEmpty]

I was half-joking when I wrote that..... /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

But filling the tank must have had something to do with the gauge going to empty, or maybe it was just a coincidence? I don't know, maybe the float came loose, or broke a contact on the sender? Regardless, it'd be a good idea to check the wiring very carefully; might get lucky and find another broken wire.

 

[79highrider]

Ok thanks Ill eventually get to it the hard part is going to be running my tank really low so its easier to pull without running out of gas

 

[Mach1460]

I just changed out my fuel tank on my 69, autozone had a hand pump/fluid exchanger for 10 bucks, two pumps and i emptied it into a clean 10 gal bucket in less than 10 min. Im sure ill use it again sometime too...