Fuel gauge - Misreading

Larry · Post by **Larry** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 9:12 am

Ever since I've had my Landy the fuel gauge has never read above 1/4 tank. I lived with it by just keeping it topped up. It usually dropped right to the bottom when nearly empty giving me enough time to fill up again.

Anyway, decided its time to sort it. Before I start tackling the job, would be very grateful if anyone has got any pointers to help cut down on fault finding/faffing about/replacing unessesary parts.

Gauge, sender, or something completely different? What do you think guys?

si_guru · Post by **si_guru** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 10:37 am

This sort of funny. I was told by the previous owner that my fuel gauge never reads below 1/4 full. I'm quit enervous as both my previous LRs has two fuel tanks. So one could always keep some "get home" fuel in reserve.

I may buy a jerry now!

flyingkipper · Post by **flyingkipper** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:04 am

Take the connectors off the sender unit on the tank and short them together. If the gauge goes to full then you know the prob is with the sender.

That's a start.

If you've got a multimeter then connect it to the sender and check you get very low resistance on a full tank and higher when empty.

That's not exhaustive but I had probs with the fuel guage on my Capri for a long time, in the end after I cleaned up all the connections to the sender it worked reliably.

Noel.

Larry · Post by **Larry** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:12 am

That sounds sensible. I'll give it a go. Never removed the sender on one of these, so just using the connections to frigg a reading will be far easier.

Larry · Post by **Larry** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 7:57 am

Thanks alot for the help.

I shorted out the wires and it shot up to Full on the gauge, so not the gauge. Took out the sender and moved the float to the top, gauge read full and worked for all the increments to empty. Scratching my head as to what the problem was

, then I looked into the tank. Some muppet had fitted the sender so that the float hit the interior of the tank and never could go above 1/4.

I've repostitioned it to operate correctly, now just got to save up for a full tank to test it fully!

flyingkipper · Post by **flyingkipper** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 8:57 am

glad it is sorted, always good when things get fixed without replacing anything!

Larry · Post by **Larry** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 9:19 am

My sentiments exactly! I managed to spend absolutely nothing on the Landy this weekend, but still managed to get it idling sweatly (finally), sort out the fuel gauge and tidy up some of the bodged electrics.

Next weekend will probably cost double though!

Cheers once again.

Ginga · Post by **Ginga** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 10:50 am

Ah hah

I have the same problem, and keep topped up, I bought a jerrycan for those occasions when it drives till empty, then fill up.

Ive checked everything i can think of.
Ill short out the wires but I bet my float catches as well.

Cheers gents, next time i have a minute ill have a look

Regards

Ginga

Larry · Post by **Larry** » Mon Mar 26, 2007 11:19 am

To pass on my new found wisdom when it comes to fuel senders.

Take a large set of mole grips and some WD40 with you to remove the fixings on the inspection cover (furthest from rear). It looked like a large flat bladed screwdriver would do the job, but more persuasion was required.