If a gas gauge doesn't work....what steps would you go through to trouble shoot what is wrong? Its stuck at E. thanks

Go under the rear of the car and disconnect the wire to the sending unit.


Ground the wire.

See what the gauge does. If it moves to full, it's the sending unit. If not it's the gauge.


Don't leave wire grounded for too long or you might fry the gauge

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

if the temp gauge is working ok, remove the blue wire that connects to the sending unit at the tank. jumper it to a good ground. turn the key to the on position and watch the fuel gauge. if it moves to the "F" mark, you have either a bad sender or sunken float (i bet it's just the float.) it will be obvious if the float is bad since it will be full of gas (give it a shake.) i think one from a phord ranger will fit but i forget exactly which year (89-91 or so?)
if the temp gauge isn't working either, you probably have a bad 5V regulator on the printed circuit board on the backside of the instrument cluster. you didn't mention what year car, some of the early (i know '63) cars have the regulator bult into either the temp or fuel gauges (i can't remember which.)
hope this helps.

-james

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70's dart. not the early ones. Temp gauge is fine. thanks for the tip!

yeah, probably a bad float. if you do check and find no/low voltage back at the fuel sender connector, check the connector at the driver's kickpanel for corrosion. i traced a bad fuel gauge reading to some corrosion (remember 5V here!)

-james

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