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Fuel gauge only goes to half

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SMack

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70 Super Bee full nut bolt resto.
New red line gauge cluster
New sending unit calibrated on bench to 11 ohms at empty
74 at full
Was at 16 and 83
But none he less gauge still only goes to 1/2 with a full tank.
Any thoughts / help greatly appreciated
Thanks
 
Welcome to the world of junk sending units......a very common problem
 
Unfortunately no one makes one that works yet . You have to bend the arm 800 times to get it right or do as I do , fill up at a quarter and realize you have an 8 gallon reserve ...
 
Last edited:
SMack said:
70 Super Bee full nut bolt resto.
New red line gauge cluster
New sending unit calibrated on bench to 11 ohms at empty
74 at full
Was at 16 and 83
But none he less gauge still only goes to 1/2 with a full tank.
Any thoughts / help greatly appreciated
Thanks
Click to expand...

Merry Xmas!

I own a small Mopar gauge restoration business and specialize in 66/67 Charger gauge clusters. But I have restored/rebuilt many other A and B body clusters. My ohm charts direct from Stewart Warner that built the majority of these gauges show for a fuel gauge: 10 ohms for full, 23 ohms for 1/2 tank and 73 ohms for empty. Not sure if the Redline gauges you're using have OEM components or not. Just thought i'd share my two cents..:)

Mark
 
Grounds. Get in line, this club has many members.
 
Redline knows what they are doing and restore things in a manner to work with existing components....
 
Did you check how it sat when IN the tank (looking through filler neck hole) and then the other idea (that I never thought to do), measure the "height" of the float swing vs the tank so you know it's not hitting the top of the tank before the rheostat covers it's full travel. Pictures to show how mine went in out of the box (float cocked) and after adjustment to sit and swing parallel to the tank bottom.

I ASSUME grounding the sender wire gives you a full tank reading?

beerestoration2018 173.JPG beerestoration2018 174.JPG
 
Good points on needing to bend the arm I also think the ohms are off when received .
They can be corrected but it's a pain in the *** .
I'm waiting till spring .
 
I finally found an original one for the X and sent it out and got it restored. When the car gets back from the museum. I will see it this the cure.....
 
Hmmmmn, I guess I should be happy! Mine goes to 3/4 when the tank is filled! I have a new gauge, new sending unit (2nd time), new tank and new circuit board! I have just learned to live with it.... it's much easier! It's consistent so I don't worry about it or let it bother me anymore.... more important things to worry about.

Things like this can drive a perfectionist crazy! Nowadays, I've learned to let less important things go and enjoy things... even when they're not perfect. Just enjoy your car is my advice.
 
Coronutcase said:
Hmmmmn, I guess I should be happy! Mine goes to 3/4 when the tank is filled! I have a new gauge, new sending unit (2nd time), new tank and new circuit board! I have just learned to live with it.... it's much easier! It's consistent so I don't worry about it or let it bother me anymore.... more important things to worry about.

Things like this can drive a perfectionist crazy! Nowadays, I've learned to let less important things go and enjoy things... even when they're not perfect. Just enjoy your car is my advice.
Click to expand...
True, but my shop (Valaya Racing, San Jose) identified a bad ground. Just seeing that gauge peg after fueling for the first time in 29 years sure makes me smile. Seems accurate too. No more stickies with mileage on the dash. Sweet.
 
I suppose you can get a bad ANYTHING these days. My sender came from Advance Auto and have had no problems after I made SURE it was GROUNDED correctly. That's a problem the PO didn't correct after installing new tank and lines.:cursin:
 
Just remember, if you fix it, something else WILL mess up. Leave ONE thing messed up and everything else will be fine. Hahahaha
 
OEM senders are better than aftermarket by a long shot. I swapped to a in-tank pump and the sender in it was pretty close out of the box and shows correct on both ends of the range. The aftermarket one I had was ok but the midrange was off.
 
Pete Bell68 said:
Good points on needing to bend the arm I also think the ohms are off when received .
They can be corrected but it's a pain in the *** .
I'm waiting till spring .
Click to expand...
Check out this TSB from LONG ago:

Fuel sender TSB 1.JPG
Fuel sender TSB.JPG


In my Charger, I had the same sort of problem for 13 years but just compensated for it. A tank with gas spilling over the neck still never read MORE than 5/8 full. 3 years ago I installed new gauges and decided to see if I could correct it. The TSB picture to the right was a big help. My fuel pickup was about an inch off of the floor and the sender and barrel/float was even higher. I bent the entire assembly as shown in the picture and it now reads correct at full and empty. That was helpful...BUT because it is an aftermarket sender, it is not as accurate as a stock unit in between full and empty. Stock units were not linear, in other words the ohms reading at a half tank was not a number half of full. The new senders are. The aftermarket vendors so far have not made a sender to match the odd elliptical ohm curve that stock sending units use.
 
Pain in the butt for sure. My fuel gage hasn't worked in YEARS. Put in new sender & it only went to half fuel on gage. Put in old factory sender & gage only went to half full (still). Grounding the sender wire & gage pegs on full. All I have left (I think) is the gage itself....have a new one, but not installed yet. What a pain! Oh yeah, original gas tank.
 
I must have gotten lucky, my aftermarket sender seems to be pretty good, it goes full range, I just cant remember who or where I bought it, but i think it measures high, where if I out in 5 gallons, it says I have almost a half tank.
 
Dennis H said:
Just seeing that gauge peg after fueling for the first time in 29 years sure makes me smile. Seems accurate too. No more stickies with mileage on the dash. Sweet.
Click to expand...

Wish that was the case for me. I added a ground wire directly from the sending unit to a crossmember (even ground off to clean metal)... still same results.
 
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