New fuel gauge, reads half no matter how much fuel

Dave K.

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Sep 21, 2007
Messages
437
Gentleman, ​I've been posting about my fuel gauge not working. After two new sending units with no change, I bought a new gauge.

Good news: The gauge has a reading
Bad news: It's reading half full no matter how much fuel is in the tank

Could this be a ground wire issue?
I'm tempted to put the original sending unit in as it's probably still good and the one in there now has a slightly different float arm

Thanks Dave
 

wahlejim

Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jul 23, 2015
Messages
884
If it is a different style float, it doesn'thurt anything to change it out. It may by hitting the top of the tank and unable to give you a higher reading.
 

roffey

Commander
Joined
Nov 22, 2012
Messages
2,187
take this from where is coming as I am not that mechanical. What if you take the sending unit out and manually move the float up and down, see where the gauge reads or what it does?
 

ThomW

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Aug 8, 2016
Messages
615
Have you tried grounding out the gauge to see if it spikes up to a full reading? If that works, then its a wiring issue or the float and/or arm in the tank is not set up right, or able to move properly in the tank.
 

Dave K.

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Sep 21, 2007
Messages
437
I'm going to put the original sender back in. The arm on the new one is different. I have a feeling that could be the problem, I hope. I'll try the ground wire on the sender too.
Thanks for the responses
 

rallyart

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Joined
Jun 7, 2008
Messages
1,175
Test the sending units outside the tank to see how they behave, with a wire to the sender and another to ground. ThomW's idea is a good one, also. The biggest problem I see is that it is a boat fuel gauge and must therefore be wrong. It is just a boat cult thing.
 
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