bamadzl

Well, my fuel gauge suddenly stopped working. It was always reading empty and the low fuel light was always on. I searched the forum and found that is was likely the sender in the tank.

Well, I bought a new sender and installed it and still nothing. I ended up testing the resistance of both senders and they both appear to be fine (20/200 ohms).
Any ideas on what the problem could be? I checked continuity of the wires at the gauge in the dash and all appears ok. Is there any way to "test" the gauge itself?

Thanks
Brad

Dinner

You can test the gauge cluster....Hold down the trip/odometer button and turn the key to on(do not start truck, and keep holding down button). Keep holding down until "check" appears in the odometer window, then let go of the button. Watch it do its thing and see what your results are.

bamadzl

Never heard of that, I'll give it a try this afternoon. Thanks.

Brad

bamadzl

Well I tried this the other day. No luck. It did display "CHEC" on the odometer. When I released the button it did it's thing but it didn't give any errors that I could tell. The fuel gauge never moved.

Anyone else have any ideas, I'm at a loss here.

Thanks
Brad

bent valves

According to the shop manual, if the gauge does not respond to the self test the problem is in the gauge cluster. It says to remove the cluster and check the gauge terminal pins to be inserted through the spring clip receptacle. If these connections look OK, replace the cluster.

bamadzl

Thanks for the tip.

I did the self test again and it worked. I did not the the test correctly the first time. Anyway, the gauge works with the self test and the sender is showing the correct resistance values, so I guess it's somewhere in between thats messing things up.

Anyone else had this problem before? I will check the connections as bent valves described.

This one is frustrating, you read that 99% of the time the sender fixes this problem. Actually, my old sender was fine.

Brad

espanton

it happened to my 1999 2500 diesel too
turned out the connection under the driver's side
right after the front wheel is corroded. you might want to take of the mudflaps/guards if you have to acces the wires to check

bamadzl

Thanks, I'll check into it.

Brad

bamadzl

Well I finally got around to checking this out and the connection was not corroded, but there was a blue wire that had rubbed itself in half. After 10 min. of fixing that up my fuel gauge now works.

Thanks again, espanton. The only bad part is I wasted the effort to change the sender.

tdobbs1993

I'm having the same problem with my fuel gauge not working, except mine shows full all of the time. I already replaced the sending unit and that wasnt the problem. Any ideas?

infidel

Sounds like the float is stuck to the side of the module.
Sometimes kicking the tank hard or hitting it hard with a soft hand sledge will break it loose.

tdobbs1993

The only thing is that it hasn't been full since I replaced the sender.

snowjoker

Check your ground.. I had the same issue on my 99 and tapped into the wire and ran a ground right to the frame.. Mind you i also have a hole cutout right above the tank for easy access lol otherwise you will need to drop the tank..

rickf

Or lift the bed.

VICIOUS FISHER

remove the wire from the sender, if the gauge still reads full there is a short in the wire to ground , most likely chafed at the frame (mine was on top of frame rail). If the gauge drops try jumping the wire to ground at which point it would read full again if everything is fine in the harness. then you can look at the sender.