Fuel System: fuel gauge

[jmccarrol@hotmail.com]

I ground paint off the frame and attached a second ground to the sending unit, to see if the needle would stop flying all over the place.
It did stop the needle from flying back and forth and now just moves a small fraction. Should I trust the gauge as
being in the ball park when only moving such a small amount. Thanks
Joe

[RadioRoy]

The gauge should move to the top when the tank is full and to the bottom just before the tank is empty. That's not a smart-alec answer, just what it should do.

If you want to check out the range of travel in a few minute's time, remove the sender from the tank, hook it up with jumper wires, and raise the float and lower the float through it's extremes of travel and see what the gauge does. Remember that it will take several seconds, almost half a minute sometimes for the gauge to answer the float's position.

Or, if you do not want to take it apart, you can fill the tank and see where it reads at full. Then you can drive a few hundred miles and see where it sits when almost empty.

Actually, I would do the almost empty check first, since you probably do not have a full tank in it now.

You could carry a full gas can with you and see where the gauge reads when the tank is empty, but that technique has its own troubles. When running a tank empty there is a risk of getting crud into the gas line, and it is also unnerving and maybe downright unsafe to run out of gas in a traffic situation.

Have you had the car long enough to have a feel for how many miles you can get from a tank of gas before it is empty?

[jmccarrol@hotmail.com]

Thanks Roy:
The gauge has never worked, so I just kept adding fuel when I took it anywhere.
I did have the sending unit out and when I put it back in I stripped some of the
threads, so if I do fill it to the top, I'd have a spill. I was able to retighten the screws
and I will have it removed in the fall to fix the threads. This means dropping the tank.
Just to get the gauge working I have created more work for myself. It is nice to see
the gauge moving, I just wish it would stay where it should without the constant
moving. Joe