fuel gauge

[GregR]

Ok, I have a mental block on this and my head hurts, well my head usually hurts but that's another story.

My fuel gauge reads 1/4 tank when the thing is bone dry. For whatever reason, I can't seem to wrap my aging brain around which way the float should "adjust" to make it read right. Or should the float be "adjusted" Seems like bending it down would do the trick. But then I overthink it and that doesn;t seem right...AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH,

Not an emergency, but sure would like to know if I ever get a chance to crawl under the hood. Also good to know I'm empty at 1/4 tank...don't ask how I found out

late model tank with VDO gauge and sender

[Rustybuggy]

Bending it down seems to be the logical choice ... but I have not seen the fuel sender in question but all the dodge one I work with you would bend them down to fix it

( I was always asking questions and never helping answer any ... I don't think I was much help)

[big balls magee]

dont they have a adj screw?, bending it down i dont think will work unless its hitting the bottom of the tank not letting it read properly. i would check the guage first then the float level, if it is hitting the bottom the yea bending it up some will cure the problem


whew greg my head hurts from typing that mess

[jspbtown]

Took me a moment for this one. I had to get a visual aide to help me through it. Assuming your float is hitting bottom (see note below) then I would say bend the arm UP. Here is how I came to that. I took a pencil and held it in 2 fingers about 1 inch in from the eraser. I cycled it up and down like a float would work. Watching the short end go up and down, as it would increasing or decreasing the resistance on the coil in the sender. When I had it all the way down I thought...OK, how do I make the short end go up more. If I bent the long end down, the short end would actually move down. On the short end, the more up it goes the LESS fuel. The more down it goes the MORE fuel. So by imagning ending the pencil up, it gave more upward movement on the short side.

Make any sense? I think it does to me at least.

NOTE: Are you sure you are "bone dry"? The only reason why I ask is because of the way the tank is angled, you can still have some gas in there and it not be able to reach the opening where the fuel lines exits. On my Manx, when my tank was empty (ie: just installed) my gauge read empty. When I put a couple of gallons in it read a little above 1/4. After running it for a while while I dialed in the carbs, it sputtered and died. I spent a while trying to figure out why, before I realized the gas level was below the fuel outlet, but still registerable on the gauge.