2nd Gen Non-Engine/Transmission Fuel gage- sender?

[hcpBILL]

My fuel gage only partially works. The gage will indicate a full tank when it is full but it only drops to just below the 3/4 mark and does not show anything lower when the tank is down to 1/4 full or less. From reading posts about the senders I can see that they are problematic but when I searched all the old posts I saw none with these symptoms. My best guess is the float is hanging up somehow but as I mentioned earlier I could find no posts where the gage works between full and 3/4. Has anyone encountered anything similar to this?

My truck only has 56,000 miles so there has not been that much fuel through it for its age (8 years).

Thanks

Bill

 

[BarryG]

HCP:

I replaced my sender at 54k due to it not reading correctly, too high. Then again at 96k it went out again but I didnt replace until just the other day. For the last 120k I could drive 400 miles on a 1/4 tank of fuel and 500 miles+ on less than 3/8's of a tank. I just recently replaced mine for good with a capacitance type sender. If you search under this same forum from about a week ago there is a thread called "fuel level sensor capacitance type install notes". It shows what I did to resolve my problems with it.

 

[KCramer]

Bill - mine does exactly this - the first time it happened, it just seemed to 'stick' at 1/4 tank, resulting in running out of fuel. After that, I've not seen the guage move below 5/8th. I've been running all winter using the odometer, but will be replacing the sender now that its warming up. 115K on the truck, 45K of mine.

ken

 

[GBaines]

Add another sender

My 01 did this years ago. Cleaning the sending unit helped but it is still unreliable. My solution after cleaning again was to add a second aftermarket sender and gauge. Now I have a backup and find that the cheep aftermarket setup if far more accurate than the stock one. The first failure of the stock unit caused me to have to bleed the injectors in southern Baja Calif.

 

[WilliamJones]

Been driving my 94 since 95 with bad sending unit. too lazy to drop the tank and replace sending unit. I just fill up every 500 miles. I just went back to BarryG's post and I am now going to fix my truck that has been broke for 13 years. I searched all post by him and found it quicker than using key word search.

 

[KLockliear]

My 01 is in the shop getting a new sender now. Same thing, at 1/4, it's empty. Left me one time (when I figured this out) and that was enough for me.

 

[hcpBILL]

Thanks for the feedback. It never ceases to amaze me how Detroit can take something as simple and foolproof as a fuel level sender and engineer all the reliability out of it.

 

[cArNiVaLwOrKeR]

Its called...



JobSecurity

 

[hcpBILL]

My Brother always called it "planned obsolescence" and I think he was on to something. He passed away in 1978 and was frustrated at how the manufacturers would always make cars, trucks & parts "good enough" instead of "the best possible" and we are still suffering through that mentality today. That mentality explains how the big three turned into the Three Stooges.

 

[moparpartsman]

The sending units are junk. We used to sell at least 2-3 a day under warranty back when the 2nd Gens were newer.