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When my key is off my NEW gas gauge needle is completely buried past empty to where I can't even see it. It caused me so much concern I took the gauge out of the dash
( loads of fun) and bench tested it. All ok, then I bench tested my new sender, all OK then I tested them together all OK. I put the dash back in and the needle still is buried. When i turn the key on it goes to " E ". I know I have more gas than that in the tank. I don't have an exhaust yet so I cant fill her up. Any clue why the needle is buried like that ? Again I tested it with resistors and saw 1/4,1/2 and full readings and thru all readings with sender. Stumped... needle is so far to left...Please help?

if the gauge and sender work together, where's the problem? gas gauge needles are always hidden behind the face piece with no power, and jump up to whatever reading is correct when the key is turned on .... worry about the accuracy when you can fill the tank and check mileage, adjustments can be made by bending the float arm

Bill

Bill, Thanks..I will fill her up and check..if the reading is off I will bend sender arm to match...Never thought of that.
Thanks Again

So Please tell me. I also bought a new sending unit for 12 volt. Its a 30 ohm and and a new 12 volt gas gauge. Got it hooked up and tried to test it. I have 12 volts going to the gauge from starter switch. I have the sender wire disconnected. I then attach a wire from the sender side of the gauge to good ground. But the gauge barely moves bout a 1/4 of an inch. Shouldn't it peg to the full side? AND, when I have it hooked in the normal configuration and turn the key on, I get same results with the needle moving only slightly, but when I move the needle by my finger up and let it drop, it stops right at the empy mark even thouh I know I have 7 or 8 gal of gas in it because I just put some in. When I turn off the key the needle will drop completely as it should, and also the cluster is grounded. Any answers?

Billy N

This is confusing. Now I only have the feed wire to the gas gauge and nothing connected to the sender side and the gauge pegs to full. I do not know what kind of reading I should be getting on the sender side of the gauge. Im not getting much of a reading at all and when I connect a from sender side of the gauge to the sender and ground it as well, I then raise the sender arm and there is no reading on the new gauge. When using a test light at the sender unit itself, the light does not come on nor does the test light come on at the sender side of the gauge.What type of reading is suppose to be shown at the sender side of the gauge?

After bout pulling my hair out, I have determined that the new gas gauge is bad. How i found was taking an old gauge cluster that I had on year 49 gauge cluster and used the gas gauge on it. hooked it up to the sender unit and it worked. So at least I know that the sender unit is good. The NEW 12 Volt gas gauge that I purched from Classic Parts of America is hanging and will not give a full reading. The sender unit is also a new sender 30 ohm for 12 volt as well. Will have to wait for another week to continue on fixing this.

In the mean time buy a multi-meter. With that you'll be able to test the new sender for resistance through the entire sweep before you install it. And it's gonna come in handy when you are diagnosing the other electrical problems.

I have a multi-meter but I do not know what type of readings I should get on the sending unit. I did ohm out the lines though all I do know tht I should have 12 volts going to the ign side of the gas gauage. Other than that, I really have no idea what other reading I should be getting.

Sender should read 0 ohms at one end and 30 ohms at the other.

BillyN, I will try to PM you with some posts that were sent to me. They go step by step in testing the fuel gauge then the sender then both together. You will need to buy 3, 10 ohm resistors..this way you can test about 1/4,1/2 and full. If you have a multi meter...just as cletis states 0 ohms to 30. Just to let you know...all my tests proved correct and the gauge was still buried. Then I started it up and it moved some. Went to fill her up and it went to full. When I shut it off it stays at the " E " mark...Weird,maybe it needed to get worked a bit?
Who knows...All I care about is it's working. Also, don't paint your housing..you will lose your ground...How do I know?
Thanks

Jimmi I appreciate your information. I will have to call and see about exchange for another gauge tomorrow. Its a 12 volt guage. But I know that it is not working correctly. It wont give a full reading when I raise the sender arm up. Gauge only reads to half. Then when I turn key off the needle will go all way down but will not come back up when I turn the key back on.

I'm having a similar problem and also posted on SB but i'll add to this..

I tested the connections between the gauge and float and it shows continuity.
I have a new float to install, and to test the gauge.
I also have a new gauge from bowtie bits to replace the original gauge.

I took out the old gauge and moved the indicator (that was pinned past full) to it's unpowered "rest" position.

When hooked to the float unit for testing, neither the new or old gauge will go above "empty". I did a bench test by supplying 12v to power side of the the gauge and continued to the float unit and grounded the float unit. When power is supplied to the gauge, it only jumps to Empty and stops. When the float is moved up or down, the gauge just stays on empty.

The original gauge number is 5643018 and the new gauge number is 564454. They look identical but could this be the problem? Could the both gauges be bad also?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I also noticed another symptom: When I loosened the mounting nut on the sender side of the gauge,the needle pinged to full.This is the nut on the post that actually tightens the sender to the cluster housing. This was a surprise. So I could not completely tighten the nut on the sender side or I would get NO reading.
I have called Classic Parts of America and the partsman is sending me another gauge for an exchange. Hopefully I will have it by this Thursday,Aug 11th. First it was the new Temp Gauge I had to exchange now its the Fuel Guage Im having to exchange. New parts, but not good quality!

Its a good Idea to bench test your replacement gauge with the sender ...Bench Test...

I have, thats how I found that the NEW gauge wasnt working as it should.

I was refering to the new replacement gauge when it arrives.
There have been several post reguarding new fuel gauges not working. A guy earlier had two in a row bad.

Good Luck

Keep us posted

DADS0, I will test it too.. Tks! saw your video as well.