<VV> Fuel Gauge Needle REALLY Stuck on E

Tom Hughes corvairdad at gmail.com
Tue Aug 19 20:56:40 EDT 2014


On my '68 coupe the fuel gauge stayed on E after filling the tank the last
time. I drained the tank, pulled the sender, and found the float filled
with gas. Pulled a brand new float off the shelf, carefully put it on the
arm, reinstalled, plug everything back in, poured about four gallons of gas
back into the tank, needle never budged off E.

Got a different gauge off the shelf and connected it in place of the one in
the dash - needle dropped to E on the "new" gauge as soon as it was
connected. Reconnected the original gauge.

With the gas still in the tank, I disconnected the sender and measured
resistance across it with my HarborFreight $3 multi-meter - about 3 ohms.

Thinking the new float was bad or I'd put it on backwards and it had stuck
to the wall of the tank, I siphoned out the fuel in the tank and removed
the sender - float was dry and empty. Measured the resistance across the
sender while manually moving the arm - went from about 3 ohms to about 90
ohms. Plugged the sender back in, grounded the sender's black wire, and had
a friend watch the gauge as I manually moved the arm with the sender in the
same orientation as it would be in the tank - the needel moved just as it
should. By the way, as soon as I disconnected the sender, the gauge needle
did go to well above F.

I flipped the float around (even though it now disagreed with the manual),
reinstalled everything, poured about three gallons in - needled didn't move
from E.

At this point, I took some measurements:

   * 11.5 V in to gauge (car's been sitting for about six weeks)
   * 8.5 V out of gauge
   * 8.5 V at input to sender
   * 3 ohms across disconnected sender

Thinking the sender may somehow be the culprit, I again drained the tank,
pulled the original sender, and replaced it with a supposedly new sender
from my shelf of parts that I first tested (around 2.5 ohms at "empty" and
around 90 ohms at "fully"). Poured at least three gallons of gas into the
tank - needle didn't move from E.

I'm at my wits end with this. What should have been a couple hour job at
the most has now consumed two of my precious evenings.

Any recommendations of what I can try next?

-- 
Tom in Baltimore
corvairfleet.blogspot.com


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