Fuel gauge resistance readings?

[danomac]

Hey all... new member to this forum.

I have a 1981 Coupe DeVille, and the gas gauge has gone wonky. It reads full most of the time, until it gets to the last 1/2 tank. I have taken my multimeter and testing the sending unit itself, but I have no idea what the resistance values are supposed to be.

I've found a bad ground from the tank to chassey and fixed it by shortening the wire, putting on a ring connector (and soldering it so it won't corrode green again ) but this didn't seem to help at all. The next step would be to test from the gauge->sending unit to see if the resistance values are the same.

Anyone know what the resistance values the sender is supposed to send out?

[The Ape Man]

I don't have the numbers but you need a new sender. The wiper is not making a connection until the tank gets low.

[danomac]

Well, I popped the dash pad off and tested the resistance from there to ground on the dash, and it's 180 ohms or so (within 5 ohms of the reading at the back of the car.) I guess it is the sender, but I sure was hoping it wasn't.

The problem is there's no DeVille's in the wrecking yards out here. I'll bet the dealer probably d/c them too (not to mention that'd be $$$.)

I should also mention it thinks there's 1/4 tank left when it's empty - I found this out the hard way.

[danomac]

I just found a shop out in Langley that can possibly fix it. I gotta yank the thing now and bring it in!

[danomac]

This time when I removed it I saw the problem; the flat wire inside of the tank that runs from the top of the sending unit down to the actual float lever is garbage. The shop I found said it's repairable and he'll rebuild the thing for $50CAD.

For those around the lower mainland BC the shop is Leakers, tel # 604.626.4558. He refurbishes/renews gas tanks and stuff too. Oh, and he moved his shop to Aldergrove.