I made the fuel gauge work

[CESMITH]

The gauge in my 86 would show full for about 50 miles then drop to emty , if you filled it up it would only take 3-6 gallons of fuel . about 3 weeks ago we had a cold snap 18-20 degrees F , I drove down town (two blocks) from work and she stalled at the red lite (embarasing).just before the batterys died she refired , so I drove to the local oil distribtor and bought a bottle of (power service ) clear diesel and added half a bottle. I then toped of boath tanks and went home thinking it had ice inthe fuel. I changed the fuel filter and couldnt get it to bleed the air out,so i changed the lift pump. Ive changed the batterys since then and added some stadine perforamce oil ; AND the GAUGE STILL WORKS after two tankfulls my question is ; is it the fuel additives or did I have a bad ground or something. ( boath battereys are double grouned, to the body and block) ED

 

[Simp5782]

ground connection or there may have been some crud on the sender circuit in the tank. Or it decided to work again on its own. who knows these trucks do all kinda crazy things.

 

[CaptTom]

who knows these trucks do all kinda crazy things.

So do owners!

Gotta love that!

 

[CESMITH]

You kids laugh all you want , but if alls it takes is an8.00 bottle of clean diesel to clean the varnish off the reostat in the sending unit.Ill take it, to make a 26year old sender work

 

[Simp5782]

somedays mine works when i fill it up, other days it doesnt work when i fill it up <shrug> i dont say to much. I know how far i can go.

 

[Knuckledragger]

Wish I knew how far I could go. I replaced the sender in the front tank (with another used one) with no results, but now it shows the tank filling up to half just before going empty. The rear tank sender goes from full to empty in about 6 gallons. I haven't tried the additive route yet, maybe I will get lucky.