my 83 brat that sat 13 years, the gas gauge doenst move a bit. is it the sender you think? suppose all the bolts will break off haha finally got it running real nice and actually got to drive it about 6 miles today. id like to know how much gas i have though can someone help me? thanks

If all the other guages are working - could be the sending unit. BUT - if it is, make SURE you repalce with the exact same sending unit part number. There are several with different resistance values for each - makes for a very funny reading....'

 

GD

Try contact cleaner on the plugs and connection at the sender itself. Probably just corroded connections if the rest of the dash works.

Oh and maybe the ground wire has lost it's ground? Some of the units have a wire comming off one of the bolts that hold the unit in the tank - that's supposed to be a ground. Maybe clean that up with some wire brushing or sandpaper or something.

 

GD

I've had this same problem with a couple of my cars that sat for a long time. Sadly, only one of them was ever "cured" and I don't know what I did to fix it. You may find that your "low gas" warning light still works even if the gauge doesn't. After driving my car for a few weeks, and always filling the tank completely full, the gauge just started working on its own. I suggest cleaning the contacts where the sender plugs into the harness and just drive it for a while.

 

I do not suggest trying to pull the sender out of the tank. I tried that once, and ended up with quite a mess. The sender is held on by a bunch of tiny studs that protrude through a flange that is welded onto the tank. There is no real way to replace them if they break, as they were positioned in the flange before the flange was welded on at the factory. I ended up cutting slots in the edge of the flange on mine so that I could slide bolts in, but if I had it to do over, I probably wouldn't have tried to remove the sender in the first place.

The connection for the sending unit was the culprit on my '86. Corroded to badly to fix, so I cut it out, and soldered the wires together. Been working ever since.

where are the wires for it under the dash? anyone know the colors, because there is a few wires that the previous guy (who didnt know anything) cut some wires for some odd reason. like i say this is on a 83 if this helps thanks

 

matt

I once had a problem where the wires under the car were so corroded and brittle that they just broke.

Noah - you may just have had a spot of bad luck with your sending unit. I've removed and swapped a couple, and haven't had any problems. If there's a lot of rust tho, you may just want to find another tank. Get the sending unit out at any rate to comapre to the new/used one cause there's several as I said. Some have a rectangular float, and others (specifically, the digi-dash ones - maybe others, I don't know) have a triangular float. When I did my 4WD swap, I fogot to swap sending units, and just recently corrected the problem. The guages read really funny, but they did still read.

 

GD

new problem with tank also, i go to put 5.00 of gas in and it takes me about a hour because the gas wont go down the tube fast enough, so i have to barley spray. then it kinda gurgals when it goes down , any ideas? thanks

 

matt

Not to hijack the thread, but have you tried putting the pump handle nozzle in as far as it'll go, then pull it out a half inch to a full inch?

 

My '92 Loyale's fussy like that... if I put the nozzle in all the way, it'll perform the "tank is full, stupid" click and stop... pull it out an inch, and it works.

tried it all, even when i put some gas in with a gas can it would over fill and run down the side then slowly go down the tube into the tank.

 

matt