front tank fuel gauge?

[banana]

anyone ever have fuel gauge read incorrectly (moves around)? Is it a bad ground or bad connection? where to start looking?

 

[DaveBen]

I would check out the float. They are supposed to be damped to stop those small movements.

Dave

 

[Stroked68]

I noticed mine is soooo slooooow when reading. If you are parked on an incline and go drive it on level ground takes forever for it to read correctly. And sometimes the fuel light comes on at different times. Im gonna do the fuel tank mods to mine soon so i will be checkin my float also. I've ran out of fuel a bunch of times cause of my gauge. When I hit a quarter tank im lookin for a gas station.

 

[DaveBen]

You don't want to run out in any diesel vehicle. It is not good for the injectors.

Dave

 

[02Oilburner]

I noticed mine is soooo slooooow when reading. If you are parked on an incline and go drive it on level ground takes forever for it to read correctly. And sometimes the fuel light comes on at different times. Im gonna do the fuel tank mods to mine soon so i will be checkin my float also. I've ran out of fuel a bunch of times cause of my gauge. When I hit a quarter tank im lookin for a gas station.

My gauge is garbage also!! I get to around half a talk and go fill up. I have run out of fuel with a reading of over a quarter of a tank and the overhead console saying 100 mile before empty!!!!

 

[Stroked68]

Yea I know its not good to run them out but this thing is so unpredictable. So far I havnt had any injector probs, still gettin 18 on the highway. Im gonna pull the tank soon and get the mods done and check out my fuel gauge. Its quite annoying, especially since Im always doin my fuel mileage. Im tempted to install an auxilliary tank so I def dont.

 

[BJS]

given the rapid fluctuations you're describing, I'm presuming that since you indicated front tank you are not seeing the same variations on the rear tank.

There are 3 things that would cause problems

1. Gauge - not this because symptoms are not present on rear tank
2. wiring grounding out somewhere
3. fuel sending unit (in tank)

If my memory serves me right the tank selector switch in the dash also doubles as the switch to determine which tank the gauge reads for information. so you may have a bad terminal in the switch, BTW the gas & diesel switches are different electrically but look the same (except a keyway on the the connector)

The most likely place for a problem is the connector on the top of the tank, which sadly means that you'll need to drop the tank or remove the bed. Corrosion from the debris that accumulates up there can interfere with the connections.

 

[charlescmoss3]

Yea I know its not good to run them out but this thing is so unpredictable. So far I havnt had any injector probs, still gettin 18 on the highway. Im gonna pull the tank soon and get the mods done and check out my fuel gauge. Its quite annoying, especially since Im always doin my fuel mileage. Im tempted to install an auxilliary tank so I def dont.

What fuel tank mods are you referring to? Sorry to get off topic...

 

[Stroked68]

What fuel tank mods are you referring to? Sorry to get off topic...

There is the hutch mod, and a few others I thought. I will have to read up on them again. One prob the superduties had was the return line in the tank was right next to the pick up line which will suck up air bubbles into the fuel system. So you got a mixture of air bubbles and fuel goin through the injectors. There is a mod that moves the return line away from the pick up line so no more bubbles. Also Im gonna get rid of the vent that wont let you fill it up quickly when it starts gettin full. Also im gonna cut the hole bigger where you fill the tank so you can use the big rig diesel pumps. All these mods are up in the wiki articles in the upper right part of this site. Check them out. Thats where I have done all my mods so far.

 

[banana]

more trouble

thanks to all for the response to my question. I tried putting fuel in the tank this evening and the pump keeps shutting off like the tank is full. Is it the vent tube? Is it plugged? do i need to pull the tank to get to it? arrrg!