4x4

I have a bad problem. When fuel guage shows empty (E) it takes only 24-25 gallons of fuel to fill up. How do I measure the other 10 gallons that should be there?
Any help appreciated.

boehunter49

Hay these sending units are $49.00 at the dealer I just bought 1 last week an they say that they keep them in stock cause they know this is a problem.<br> Bob

4x4

I bought this truck about a year ago and it seems that it has always done this. Was wondering if the sender could be pulled out and the float arm tweaked to show the remaining amount of fuel. Other than showing empty when at about 10 gallons remaining,the gauge seams to be consistent over the first 25 gallons. BTW truck is a 98 12v

tlea7

For $49.00 I'd hate to drop the tank a second time if the repair didn't work. You can remove the sending unit from the tank and move the float up &amp; down manually and watch the guage. I still think I'd just replace it though.<br>Tim

Shovelhead

Mine is the same.
I look at this way
A: I'll never have to post in the 911 forum &quot;I've run out of fuel and can't get it started&quot;.
B: The Injection pump uses the excess fuel pumped forward to cool the pump. The more fuel in the tank, the cooler the fuel will be before being pumped forward again.
The lower the fuel level in the tank, the hotter the fuel being pumped forward is going to get.
A member of another forum measured the fuel temps at the tank after running at highway speeds and found it was over 100F.
Just something else to think about.
BTW I refuel as soon as I pass 1/2 tank unless on the road, then I carry 2 full 5 gal fuel jugs of Diesel.

tmiller24

When I replace mine last summer it appear that all I had to do was bend the wiper arm and put it back. Didn't look like the pad was staying in contact near the last of its travel. 1 ton trucks bounce down the road enough to loosen just about anything,but I ain't complainin'.<br> Tony

prairieguy

My guage was pretty accurate until about 70,000 miles. When guage showed empty, and computor read out showed 0 miles left, the tank would hold about 30 to 31 gallons. I had a safety cushion of 4 to 5 gallons left. This was very consistent on every tank so that I counted on it.<br>But it suddenly changed about a month ago. Now it is out of fuel when the guage shows about 1/16 and the trip meter shows 25 to 35 miles. I learned the hard way running out of fuel twice before figuring out the guage had changed. I thought my fuel had gelled as the temp was about 0 degrees both times. I know I shouldn't have been taking my tank down so low anyway, and am correcting that bad habit, but I am going to put a new guage/sending unit on today. Any ideas what might cause this to suddenly change??<br><br>Thanks, Jerry<br>

4x4

Well...I replaced the sending unit yesterday.. Man that whole assembly is a piece of junk. I had heard of planned obsolescence. The whole thing will slide on a couple of screws that are screwed into the plastic housing of the in-tank-unit. There is no way to tighten it enough to keep the slipping from occurring. I am sure the thinking here is that since the tank is plastic that there would be some give to the unit in the event of a mashed in tank. I don't know. It does appear that if the assembly slides up and sticks, there would be an innaccurate reading since this would change the location of the sending unit on the verticle axis. It makes me wonder if my original unit was ok and it had been affected in this way. I went ahead and replaced it since I had it all out and not wanting to take a chance that the sender was really bad. The tank had what felt like 8-10 gallons in it when I chaged it. Now the gauge shows a 16th at that level before it was showing a minus 1/16. After I filled it it took 25 gallons so it looks like it might show empty with about 4-5 gallons left. Time will tell.

ET RAM

Go to 2nd Gen No Drivetrain see fuel gage fix. There is a link there to information on permanent fixes to the sending unit. I'm on my second unit and it also has problems. I rely on my oeometer to measure fuel duration.