The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Gas Gauge Malfunction 1961 c10

The gas gauge stopped working on my 1961 and is pegged past full whether ignition is off or on. I removed the sending unit from the tank and all looked good. Connected it externally and moved the arm up and down and nothing happened with the gauge. Reinstalled and made sure both the ground wire and sending wire were clean and secure. I don't have an electrical tester. All the other gauges are working. Any thoughts about how to proceed would be appreciated.

Buy a VOM meter and learn how to use it, they are cheap. Then check the input side of the gauge and ground.

Ed

Sorry bout that double posting. I decided I posted in the wrong on and didn't see how to delete the first one.

Thanks Ed. I just purchased one and will try to figure out what to do with it.

I took care of the duplicate post. No worries.

1. Don't put the sender back in until gauge works. It is THE tool you need for bench testing.
2. You say you connected it externally and nothing happened. That would depend on how you "connected" it/tested it.
3. If you are unsure or not acquainted with electrics, Don't hook anything up until you get instructions here. You will damage something.
Watch the vid and read the link to get up to speed.
Click
And Clack

Ask further after reviewing, or report results. It is going to be a ground problem or the gauge or the sender. Does not matter if they "look" good.

On your 1961 it is very easy. When the float is at the bottom, the ohm reading should be close to 0 (choose 0-200 ohms on your meter or just ohms if your meter auto-selects the range). When the float is at the top, the ohm reading should be 30 or close to that. As you move the arm slowly while the meter is connected (one lead goes to a good ground source or the body of the sender unit and one lead goes to the center screw where the fuel gauge wire connects) the reading should range between 0 and 30 ohms. Ohms as you may already know are units of resistance. Please let us know if you have questions.

If you know any friends who are electronics hobby-type guys or gals, ask them for a 10, 15 or 22 ohm resistor. Those are crazy common and anyone who tinkers with circuits ought to have several around. Then it becomes really easy. Remove the center nut on the sender, remove the wire and with the ignition in the on position, hold one side of the resistor to the connector of the wire and ground the other end of that resistor. Don't worry...you won't get any sort of shock. If you have a 10 ohm resistor, your fuel gauge should read about 1/3 full. A 15 ohm resistor should give you about 1/2 tank reading and a 22 ohm resistor should give you about 2/3 tank full reading. If that doesn't happen, and if your sender seems to be working (incredibly unlikely if you have the original sender), then something has happened between the tank and the gauge.

If you want more on fuel sender units, I've been posting lots of notes and observations here recently...including work done on rebuilding/rescuing an OEM sender unit. You should not have to look far to find them.