Fuel Gage Issues!!

[something9000]

Symptoms:
Key Off: The gas gauge needle shows about 1/8 th full.
Key On: The needle goes to the extreme left, i.e. left of Empty.

/\ when mine did that it was the sender

 

[carboncanyon]

Just to add my 2 cents:

My 1990 Bronco II fuel gauge didnt work when I bought it. Dropped the tank and found the previous owner put in a new fuel pump, but did NOT put the sending unit back in! Ordered a new sending unit, installed it, and still no fuel gauge.

Pulled the dash and found that slosh module. On my slosh module, the largest capacitor was bulged (usually indicating its bad), and I replaced it with another capacitor and re-installed it and all be damned if my fuel gauge didnt start working! This was a couple years ago, and it still works.

 

[runningred92]

Key On: The needle goes to the extreme left, i.e. left of Empty.

In Tennessee when your needle gets past empty to the left we call that W.
W=walk

 

[prince402]

Symptoms:
Key Off: The gas gauge needle shows about 1/8 th full.
Key On: The needle goes to the extreme left, i.e. left of Empty.

/\ when mine did that it was the sender

Thanks for the feedback and it makes me think that it may be my problem with these symptoms.

Since my last post above, I removed the cluster and had an electronic technician friend inspect my main board and the Anti-Slosh module board. He uses a jeweler's magnifying glass and a few weeks ago found a fault on my cruise control board. He re-soldered that and I now have continuous access to my cruise control that was off and on. But he found no problems with the gas gauge boards.

I then got a salvaged complete cluster with all gauges and Anti-Slosh module. I had a dead tachometer (posted elsewhere on this forum). The one from this salvaged cluster is now in my truck and working (one out of two!). But the salvaged A-S module did not get my gas gauge working. So I still am left with the same symptoms. Of course both A-S modules could be bad and look OK. Did anyone ever have a Ford shop actually check the module? It's reported that they can do that.

I think that it is time to test the electronic signaling from the sender and I will have to research on exactly how to do that. I'm OK with a multi-meter but I need to find the exact procedure and analysis. I'm still on a pretty steep learning curve in my four months of my Explorer ownership.

Thanks for the replies. I really appreciate the help. This forum has enabled me to repair what otherwise would be a mystery.

 

[carboncanyon]

Just "looking" at the slosh module with a magnifying glass wont tell you anything other than the solder joints look good. Although on mine, the large capacitor was obviously deformed, so I replaced it and my gauge started working. To truly troubleshoot it, you would need to actually apply power and take readings at various points with a Volt/Ohm meter while moving your sending unit manually. Im not sure how ford troubleshot them.

I had already troubleshot the wiring, and knew that the sending unit worked, and the wiring to the dash worked, so knew my problem had to be in the slosh module or the gauge itself.

 

[prince402]

Happy Update to above posts
The exact fuel gauge behavior was posted above, i.e. Key Off 1/8th full and Key On left of E.

After two weeks of my gas gauge behaving in error, it is now working

In addition it was the additional motivation that I needed to tear out the cluster and replace my non-working tach. The replacement tach from the salvaged cluster fixed one out of two bad gauges. I was unable to get my gas gauge working but now....

So does this two week hiatus of not working for my gas gauge lend to any diagnosis?

 

[pmitchell72]

Fuel gauge not working

I have a '91 Explorer.
I have read this thread to help fix my fuel gauge issue. So let me know if I'm right or wrong. I measured my yellow/white wire under master cylinder: to the tank it reads around 20 ohms, to gauge it reads above 70 ohms. My gauge reads 1/4 tank. All of these readings are with car OFF. I have not done any readings with car on other than the gas gauge goes to below E. Right now, I just keep track of mileage but would like to fix gauge. So, my issue is with gauge or sending unit?

Next, I saw a great thread on getting my power windows to work...bushings..maybe I hear motor but 3 of my windows don't work..luckily driver side does work.

 

[larrydd999]

Old post, but it looks like I also have a problem with the anti-slosh module on our '92 XLT. I have around 48 ohms from the sender and the gauge reads anywhere it wants to regardless of how much fuel is in the tank. Thanks to casperthealien and to Roadrunner 777 (hi to KD0SCJ from KC7JJ) for their input.