Troubleshooting a Fuel Gauge

The folks at AutoMeter grabbed a good looking C-Series Chevy pickup and used it as a test bed to show you how to troubleshoot those fuel gauges. They start by explaining that one of the first things you would need to do is determine the ohm range of your fuel gauge sending unit. They demonstrate how you can easily find this out, and also tell you the ranges that apply to the various years of vehicles you may encounter. On their pickup, the fuel tank is located right behind the seat so it was easier for them to just remove the fuel gauge sending unit entirely and perform a bench test to get that range. You'll also see a nice little tip for working on a fuel tank in an enclosed area, such as the cab of the pickup they are using.

Once you have the range, you can select a proper replacement, or get to troubleshooting that gauge. One of the first places to look is the ground. If your gauges’ wiring connection is not the best it can be, you may encounter a gauge that may read full all the time. This is also a symptom of a poor connection to the signal wire from the sending unit. If the gauge reads lower than it should, this is an indicator of a poor ground.

Once they have gone through showing you how to identify and troubleshoot your fuel gauge, the guys walk you through reassembly, which is essentially the reverse of the process used to access the fuel gauge initially. They wrap up the video with one more tip, and that is the addition of an auxiliary ground wire to the fuel level sender. Operating on the side of caution is never bad thing, just ask someone who has had to pay to replace a fried gauge due to a poor ground. Enjoy the video, learn some things, and if nothing else, admire the truck!

Don't forget to take a look at Speedway Motors' AutoMeter selection. It may get you to thinking new gauges are better than fixing what you have!