Need Help Guys....Fuel Level gage

DanD2

Port fuel level gage was acting funny last year and towards the end of the season, it stopped working. I replaced the sending unit and it still does not work......here's what I've done to trouble shoot
Hooked up sending unit to Stbd side and it works, Swapped gages, Port gage works on Stbd side, Stbd gag does not work on Port side, I also swapped plugs on the back of the gage.

I'm befundled.....lol. What am I missing here??? Can anyone help me out?

Michael T

You are sure your sending unit is okay? Do you have its specs and have you put a meter on it? You have continuity of all grounds? Those gauges are very sensitive to poor ground.

Robs_232

Dido MT. I just put this on DanD2's other post. I suspect a ground issue.

DanD2

I actually bought a new sending unit because I thought it was bad. As part of my troubleshooting, I took the new unit out and hooked it up to the wires on the Stbd side and it works fine there. I even tried my old unit and that is ok also.

Looking at the wiring at the gage, the middle wire is pink with black strip, that wire goes to the middle of the sending unit. There are two other wires which I believe is ground, these are green and one goes to the gage and the other goes to the tank.

For further testing, should I run a wire from the sending unit directly to the gage? Should I also try running another ground?

Michael T

Unless something has cut the wires to the dash I suspect a faulty ground.

TonyWalker

I concur with the likelyhood of it being a "ground wire" issue.  On my 342 all or most all of the ground wires terminate at the back of the boat to a common point.  I have had issues that ended up being at his common point.  corrosion, oxidation, etd.

DanD2

I have continuity from the sender ground to a known good ground so that should mean that my ground is ok right? When I check for voltage across the sending unit, I get nothing. The stbd side I get 5 volts. The wire on the sending unit is a different color than the wire on the gage. Where does the sending unit wire go?

DanD2

So I disconnected the non ground wire on the sending unit, put in another wire and connected it to the gage and WALLAH....it works. Obviously I have a break somewhere. Got to feed another wire.....WAPITA!!!

Michael T

@DD2, yeah I usually check the friggin' wires first!

DanD2

Michael, yeah I should have done that before I spent $90 on a sending unit.....oh well, boat was all wrapped up for the winter and I wanted to get started on my parts.

Michael T

.....never hurts to have a couple of extra parts!

DanD2

Got it figured out. Grounds are all good, Apparently I have a break in the feed wire. Ran a new wire and everything works fine.....good thing I had previously put in an extra snake wire, make running the wire much easier.

Thanx for all your help and comments