my brother just got back from idaho and he drove home in his 93 explorer. on the way he gassed up and when he turned the engine back on, the gas gauge jsut stayed down and its been at empty for the last couple of days. whats the problem with the gague? maybe a gear or something?

i dont believe there is a gear unless, it is actually in the guage..... several people on here have had problems with a fualty guage reading though... it seems that they just wear out over time and the float in the tank needs to be replaced....

The fault is either a bad gauge OR a bad sending unit in the fuel tank. Try a new gauge (easier job) but my guess would be a bad sending unit. The bad thing is, the unit is an intergral part of the fuel pump so a replacemnt would run about $160 or more. (that's just for the part). It would involve draining your tank, removing the tank from the vehicle and swithching out the unit from the top (a type of screw on, gasket type procedure).
I once had a gauge that would do that, so I just relied on the "trip odometer" and would zero it after each fill up.
I would always refill at about 250 miles or so.