Need to know fuel guage basics.

[budsbud662]

I have a 99 warrior "fishing boat" 40 gallon fuel tank.. I bieleve i have the guage powered right, but it just points way to the left when i turn the ignition key on.

Does a fuel sending unit run off 1 wire? in the middle of the bolt circle on the tank? My sender looks pretty rusty. Does the gas tank need to be grounded?

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Need to know fuel guage basics.

Yes, the metal on the top of the fuel sender normally has a screw terminal or spade type connection for a ground wire. Without the ground wire the gauge will not work.

 

[budsbud662]

Re: Need to know fuel guage basics.

yes in the center of the sender there is a spot for a ground, where is the sender wire???? this is a bit confusing to me..

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Need to know fuel guage basics.

The sender wire is probably what you are looking at. It is normally a screw terminal. Ground is the shell of the sender unit and may be a spade terminal or a screw terminal.

 

[budsbud662]

Re: Need to know fuel guage basics.

can i ground the tank straight to the battery, ???? then run the sender to the gauge..


so the sender should have

1 sending terminal.. 1 ground 1 (running light terminal)

should there be an nother for ignition postive? or the Postive and the sending are the same?


if my gauge is falling straight to empty when i turn ignition on does that mean bad ground somewhere??? hmmm

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Need to know fuel guage basics.

Here is what you need.

GAUGE: There are four connections on the gauge. 1) +12V when the key is on, 2) ground, 3) the sender line from the fuel tank, and 4) the internal light for the gauge.

SENDER: There are only two connections at the fuel tank. 1) the sender line that goes to the "S" terminal on the gauge. 2) Ground. The ground terminal can go directly to the battery. As for why the gauge does what it does, is because you don't have all the connections in place or there is no fuel in the tank.

 

[LiLGrady17]

Re: Need to know fuel guage basics.

Not trying to hijack your post, but seems there's ALWAYS someone having the exact problem I have and a bunch of people to provide the solutions.. Thanks for the gauge terminal posts info..

If you remove the sender unit form the tank, bring the sender over to the gauge & temp out with jumper wires a new "S" & GND lines, wiring right to the gauge, and move arm again. If it works now, just pull an new "S" & GND wires to the tank. If not, you need to ohm the sending unit to see the resistance sweep go from about 0.3 to 1.2 as the float arm moves. No change, sender is shot. Hope you get yours figured out.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: Need to know fuel guage basics.

Generic fuel senders measure 33 - 240 ohms resistance.

 

[LiLGrady17]

Re: Need to know fuel guage basics.

Thanks Silvertip. I replaced my GND wire, the tank to battery, and the Gnd wire tank to the gauge. I also ran a new Signal wire Tank to gauge. Now, I get a Full gage all the time! Any Ideas?