alright so heres how it went down. the last few days I've been smelling some burning wires in my car. everything was workin fine until today. The burning smell seemed to stop and so did my fuel gauge.

 

What I'm looking for is a online diagram of where that fuel gauge sender wire runs to. (thinkin it rubbed through on something) Anyone ever run in to this problem? my car gets such crappy mpg, and it varies from day to day so I really need to get this issue figured out.

 

I'd like feedback from everyone with ideas and solutions to this problem. (Other then just keeping the fuel tank full) I need a working gauge

The wire between gauge and sender is designed to be grounded by the sender, so it getting "shorted" would not cause it to overheat/burn, just for the fuel gauge to read full scale (probably empty).

 

Sounds like you lost a wire supplying power to the gauge.

to the gauge.. so pull the dash?

 

I checked for the fuse that run the fuel height, and my GL doesnt have a fuse slot for it like the book and the fuse cover says.. there is nothing there.

 

Is it running off another fuse?

Does Haynes or Chilton's cover that? I'll have access to my FSMs in two weeks and could probably scan some pages for you.

I dont have access to either. I had both my haynes and chiltons sittin on my workstation at work and someone stole em..

Looking at the wiring diagram for an '88 model the fuse for the fuel gauge is #12. It also powers a lot of other things also.

can I access the fuel tank from inside the car via inspection plate? or do I have to drop the tank on the wagon to get to the fuel sending unito?

There should be a plate in the floor right above the tank, but don't quote me on that.

Kelly - you are right. there is an inspection plate for the fuel sender. I swapped out the sender, and instrument cluster. When I first turned the key on, the gauge went up then down up down.. drove to the gas station, topped off the tank, gauge reads slightly under a full tank.

 

I did find that the T connector was corroded and the wire was busted loose so I spliced on a new wire.

 

If this whole deal doesnt work out after I run this tank of gas down, I'm installing an aftermarket fuel gauge. Anyone ever do this? Have any tips?