Has any one swapped a gauge from one cluster to another? I believe my fuel gauge has died a painful death and would like to laid to rest.

Easier to replace the whole cluster. You will need another one to get the new gauge, right

MMY? You have to remove the dash trim, then the cluster, then the cluster 'glass', then then you can change the gauges. Rob is right. If you have a known good cluster, swap it and save the bad one for parts later. I specifically yank almost every EA81 cluster I find just for spare gauges.....

... I believe my fuel gauge has died a painful death and would like to laid to rest.

 

Are you completely SURE it is a Gauge Fail?

 

The culprit could be the Fuel Tank's sender unit, the float usually fails...

 

So I Kindly suggest to check for ground signal coming from the Fuel Tank's float.

 

Kind regards.

The Ea81 gauges are pretty easy. I would replace just the gas meter part if I knew the miles on the odometer were correct and everything else works on the existing gauge. I would also heed advice on the sending unit too, quite often see the sender bad and not often see the gauge.

After Rob sent me a cheat sheet for my temp gauge and got that one worked out... I thought it might be applicable to the fuel level also... Sometimes the gauge will read ( I never know if its correct ) Anywhere from 1/4 to full. It reads full more often than not.. It could be the sender. But in order to check I think I need to know what the resistance range is supposed to be or am I thinking backwards?

I Believe that the easier way to test the Sender, is to Remove it from the Gas tank, then connect it again to its wiring and Manually Move it from the Low bottom to the Full top, while seeing the readings on the Needle.

 

A visual inspection of the sender and its whole conditions is good Idea, if you find it Worn, you can replace it.

 

Also, the wiring from the Sender to the Gauge could have a short circuit somewhere, because you wrote that "it reads Full more often than not" So you can follow the Wire from the Start to the End to be Sure that it isn't touching bare body metal in a tiny crack or rip to its covering plastic...

 

Well, that is the Way I fix issues with Gas Level Gauges & senders.

 

Good Luck!

Kind Regards.

Check the nuts/washers on the back of each gauge at the PCB. Often they are loose and slightly corroded causing bad connections. Clean and tighten all the gauge connections on the back of the dash and you might just be good to go.

In my opinion The easiest way to test the gauge is to connect the sending unit wire straight to a ground if it is good it will go all the way to full. You want to use a short piece of wire connected to the gauge and a know good ground for Best results

Edited September 1, 201213 yr by mikaleda

OK well some progress.. THe gauge doesn't move when the sender is disconnected... The snag is I lost the wire in the loom then again when it goes under the dash. I will get there a good schematic would help haynes and chiltons both suck eggs.

I've got factory manuals (as I'm pretty sure Turbone does as well) I could do some scanning if you want. Or maybe Alldata from a library would have what you need.

98% Guarantee the problem to be the Fuel sender specifically where the sliding pickup operates across the resistance sector,Try tweaking the moving pickup to get better contact common issue after many years.

That would be great Abe! I was hoping it would be the sender. After unplugging it and turning the car to run the gauge did not move, still pegged. So I tried jumping the wires at the point of sender, still pegged. From what I have read and what has been posted. The problem is going to be wires or gauge. Still kinda hoping it is the wires. I am much more comfortable with fixing ,patching and splicing wires than cluster removal since the last time I neglected to remove the steering cover and something else that got scratched up when I did so.

Test it before wasting your time removing parts.

Unplug the sender and put a 95 ohm resistor(i use a poteniometer calibrated w/an ohmmeter) between the gauge wire and ground.

Should read full.

 

1/2 tank @ 32.5 ohms

empty @ 7 ohms

 

If gauge reads OK,sender is the problem.

Careful cleaning w/a pencil eraser has always worked for me.

In my opinion The easiest way to test the gauge is to connect the sending unit wire straight to a ground if it is good it will go all the way to full. You want to use a short piece of wire connected to the gauge and a know good ground for Best results

 

It is never a good idea to ground a sender wire w/o adding at least a little resistance to limit the current.Bad consequences,sometimes.

Well the sender is showing 12.79 ohms and the gauge hasn't moved from full since June. Going to have to look into a potentiometer.. It has more than a few good uses.. Kind of audio nut also and helps with just the right amount of resistance to one speaker or another for perfect blending.

Well the sender is showing 12.79 ohms and the gauge hasn't moved from full since June. Going to have to look into a potentiometer.. It has more than a few good uses.. Kind of audio nut also and helps with just the right amount of resistance to one speaker or another for perfect blending.

 

If the gauge reads full w/the sender @ 13 ohms,then either the gauge is bad,has poor connections, or wiring to the sender has high resistance.My money is on a bad wire connection.

 

I would measure resistance of(or check for a voltage drop on)the sender wire between the round meter plug behind the dash and the sender.

 

Same for ground.

 

10 turn potentiometers make dialing up exactly the right resistance a breeze.

 

Good luck.

It is never a good idea to ground a sender wire w/o adding at least a little resistance to limit the current.Bad consequences,sometimes.

 

I have never had a problem (not to say your wrong) I don't leave it connected for more than a second is why it doesn't hurt anything