DennisT

So I, with legions of others, have a flaky fuel gauge. I never really know how much is in there. At fill-up, mine shows almost full, then within 75 miles drops to one-quarter tank and sits there. I've never been bold enough to drive it down to see if it would ever dip into the empty area or turn on the low-fuel warning gong, (or did my '97 even have the audible warning).

I know some of you just reset the trip odometer at fill up and forget the gauge. Some of you must have bitten the bullet, pulled the fuel tank, and replaced the sender.

Are these problems EVER other than the in-tank sender?

Are replacements reliable for the long haul?

No easy way to replace it either, is there?

Dennis

billp102740

Its a PITA to change out the sender . If your gage is same as mine , the tension spring on the float arm had pushed the pivot hinge outward and the contact point off the pot contacts , thus showing an empty tank . It can be fixed or you can also just replace it and keep the old one as a spare . If u do it yourself , run the tank as low as you can b4 u start . And have a 5 gal can for re-fuel when done . A major problem was that the snap connectors for fuel supply and return line at the sender were not as described in the Service Manual . After pondering things I decided some hose and worm clamps was a good alternative . A wood paint stick and some gentle taps on the sending unit plastic hold down ring made this an easy part of the repair w/o spending $$ 55 for a special tool . The electric connections were plug in so no real problems there . The only real problem is working in the left rear wheel well with the tank lowered a couple of inches and not having a set of 48 inch long arms .