Sierra Fuel Gauge issues

[mike_nofx]

Hey people! Trouble is with a 90 Sierra, with 'Long Ranger' Long range tank. I believe its approx 70 Litre capacity. Ive had this problem since ive owned it.

The issue i am having is: When i completely fill my tank, the gauge will read dead empty (needle cant go any lower).
As i use the fuel, the needle will slowly rise until the gauge shows approx 1/3 full and this is the highest the needle will go. At this point its probably reading true... maybe.

Then from there on it appears to work normally.

I usually fill up just below the empty line. But only ever put just over 40 Litres.

Is there a simple/cheap fix for this?

Thanks
Mike

[Mike E]

mine does the same thing
i was told to take the sender out of the tank and clean but i haven't tried it yet

[zook4fun]

had the same thing but mine only worked just before dead empty so the gauge only worked for the last 5ltrs before it ran out of fuel. was fun to drive

its the sender, contact arms aren't touching all the time.

take it out clean and make sure its touching and it will work fine. mine did and only took 45 min start to finish with having to pull the std tank out as the sender is on the top of the tank.

[want33s]

The sender rheostat is probably broken.
If you pull it out and remove the cover you will see there is a thin wire coiled around an insulator with a small arm that rubs on it which is attached to the float rod.
The arm has bent so it doesn't make cntact through its full arc of travel or the wire is bunched up or broken.

Easier to just replace the sender unit.

Jas.

[Brian Munce]

I replaced my sender and the fuel gauge is woring fine now.

[yldzuk]

im sure they come up on ebay ocassionly relitivly cheap and new think only about the $50 dollar mark but mine does the same too been meaning to replace but not enough time in the day