my gas gauge isent working anyone have a clue why not???
it usully points at "f" but if i fill up all the way it will go above full and rest on the plastic to the right of the "f" and as i burn gas it will go down but like i said only to the "f" or maybe a millimeter under.......what do i need to replace??????

 

Does it do that when you're almost empty? Maybe it's hard to tell now? duh... But it may just be that your tank is overfilled. That can happen, and your gauge will show past the F, unless you know for a fact that it shouldn't stay on F that long.

 

no ive run outta gas once since ive had it and the gauge was still pointing at "f"

 

Well you only have 3 things in the fuel gage circuit. The sending unit in the tank, the wires and connectors and the gage itself. If I were checking it, I would go to the connector at the rear of the car. Jack it up obviously. In front of the axle there is a double connector bolted to the body on the left side near the fuel lines. The side bolted to the body is black and it will have a black plug and a white plug connected to it.

Disconnect the white one. You will see 3 wires in it. The middle wire is purple and it carries the signal to the gage. The end wire is black and it is ground for the sending unit. The other end wire is grey. It provides power to the fuel pump. You won't be touching it.

I will assume you don't have a potentiometer so you will go to Radio Shack and purchase a 47 Ohm resistor. If you connect the 47 ohms to the mating side of the 2 pins I spoke of in the Black connector, the gage should read 1/2 tank.

Again, the white connector pins are the sender so you have to connect the resistor to the 2 pins in the mating half (black connector bolted to the body). I've not looked at the pins in that connector in some time but I think you can just stick the ends of the resistor in the cavity with each pin in the connector.

When you power up the car without starting the engine, the gage should read about 1/2 full (or 1/2 empty if your a pesamist).

If it reads correctly, you have proved the wiring and the gage are good. You should take a reading at that point of the sending unit. Use an Ohm meter on the white connector from the purple to the black wire. The spec is from 0 ohms empty to 90 ohms full. So from empty to full the sending units swings from 0 to 90 ohms. If you check the sending unit at about a half of a tank it should be reading about 45 Ohms obviously.

Sorry this is long. Probably 2 days after you read it, it will start to make sense.

Oh, if you do the test with the resistor and the gage doesn't work, chances are the sending unit in the tank is good and the problem is some where in the wiring or the gage.

Hope this helps.

 

thanks a lot man no big deal on the length thanks for taking the time to tell me