Fuel gauge not working

[TDickerson]

Well, after spending 2 years in England I am going back to San Antonio. My son is taking care of my 97 truck and now has about 80k + miles. He has had to have the lift pump replaced and just informed me that the fuel gauge is not working after filling the tank. Anyone have this problem, he is taking it to the dealer in a few days. Luckily I have the extended warranty to cover these items. I thought about buying the new 2003 but since I'm coming back to the states a little earlier than anticipated, I decided to take this one back for a couple more years. Not sure about the new ones yet. My son liked driving the hell out of this but really can't afford the maintenance on it and wouldn't be able to keep it up anyway. It's too good a truck to see him drive it to the ground. So anyway it was nice keeping up with things on this board while here in England and glad to be comming back. Looks like to pretty high diesel fuel prices.



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1997 Solid Black 2500 4X4 SLT 3. 54, auto (lazy), loaded except leather (maybe next time) fully stock with chrome westins (love em). Son taking care of it (driving the you know what out of it in Jax Fl) while I’m overseas.

 

[redram]

Since you have the extended maintenace warranty, get it fixed at the dealer. It's probably the fuel sending unit but the dealer may opt to replace the entire fuel tank module.



Your son can't afford the maintenance? Hell, there's nothing cheaper to operate per mile of use than a Cummins 12 Valve. What maintenance costs? Oil and Oil filter? Antifreeze once every 2 or 3 years? Fuel filter once every 6000 to 12000.



Rotate the tires, maybe. What could be cheaper than this?



140K on a 96 3500 2WD. Have a friend in Idaho that has 250K on a 96 4X4 2500 that is still OE except for brake pads and tires. Oh wait, had to put on a new starter (rebuilt) at 200K +.



I wish I had a functional fuel guage, mine has not worked in 3 years... . it's a common problem and your son had nothing to do with the failure.



redram

 

[TDickerson]

Yeah, but after he found out how much the dealer wanted to replace the front, rear end and transmission fluid he got scared. Been following the recommended maintenance schedule in the manual. Although, I was paying for everything. Young kids today don't like forking out money for things like car maintenance. Had to replace the tires and the brakes during this time period which he couldn't afford. Hey, I had to have an excuse to take it back.

 

[nevinst]

TDickerson,



How's Mildenhall these days? I spent 6 years at Lakenheath. Never got used to the weather! Being a New Mexico boy that wet stuff was hard to tolerate. Bet you're glad to return stateside. Welcome back.

 

[TDickerson]

nevinst

Other than the smelly pig crap they put on these farm fields and the rainy cold, I guess it wasn't too bad. This place itself probably hasn't changed that much since you were here, but alot of construction is starting at RAF Lakenheath to change road layouts and new exchange facilities with other new buildings going up. With the tightened security it takes awhile to get on the bases with Mildenhall being the worst. I go to RAF Feltwell and pass Lakenheath every morning and it takes me about 15 minutes to get past the front gate. Housing is all blocked off so side roads are not passable. Glad to be coming back and getting some much needed sun. Take care.

 

[TowPro]

If you feel like doing the fix yourself, here is a URL to check out

http://mywebpages.comcast.net/towpro/



I got the pictures several years ago and just left them on my website.