filled up tank and guage shows empty?!

[harleydodgeman]

I put about 5 gal in the tank, the guage showed about 1/4 tank, drove it for a while and it showed about 1/8. Seems to me it is working. Until.
Put 16 gal in it, (filled it up) and the guage is stuck on empty after i started it up? drove around, stopped and started mulitple times and still on empty

Anyone have a clue what is goin on with this?

by the way car is a 64 plymouth fury

 

[skigoose]

float might be shorting out when fully extended, you soud put a volt meter on it, if you can

 

[Dako]

Is it the original gauge, or did you replace it?

If it's original and untouched, I would be wondering if (by coincidence) it failed or that there is an intermittent short in the wiring.

If you replaced the sending unit, did you by chance hook it up 1st and manuallly verify which direction was 'up' prior to installation?

Easy troubleshooting would be to clean the wire connection at the sending unit and the grounding at the fuel line at the tank. I'm not sure how to read out the gauge.

 

[moparmarks]

Is it the original gauge, or did you replace it?

If it's original and untouched, I would be wondering if (by coincidence) it failed or that there is an intermittent short in the wiring.

If you replaced the sending unit, did you by chance hook it up 1st and manuallly verify which direction was 'up' prior to installation?

Easy troubleshooting would be to clean the wire connection at the sending unit and the grounding at the fuel line at the tank. I'm not sure how to read out the gauge.

Most reproduction units don't seem to work very well if at all.
Think the sending unit can only go in one direction.
Good advise where to start.

May have a bad spot on the coil. Drive it around and see if it starts working.

 

[hunt2elk]

Also make sure the ground strap is making a good connection.

 

[bigmanjbmopar]

Pull the cluster, mine had a broken solder trace and was causing the gauge to go up to full when you pressed the high beam switch.

That along with that the fuel gauge is adjustable - yes that's right adjustable - in the back of it there are 2 holes one for full and one for empty these are set point adjustment to dial in the the needle set points, there are little very little gears that make the adjustment only 1 of the teeth of these gears shows in the hole use small pin or flat head and turn each one until desired set point is achieved. I mention this because along with grounding problems my gauge was off as well and needed simple adjustments.

All this of course after you make sure your sending unit is good and you have a good ground strap at the sending unit, also 99% of gauge and sending unit failure or not working is due to chassis ground make sure you have GOOD GROUNDS remember even the cluster mounting screws make contact with the frame for a ground..good luck.