Fuel guage

The Bottom Line · #1 06-04-2012, 09:22 PM

How is everyone?
Well the boat is in the water and she's running great. The only thing is my fuel gauge shows a little over 3 quarters of a tank full when I fill it up. Does anyone have any ideas of what the problem could be? Gauge, float in the tank (if there is one), or anything else?
Any help would be appreciate and thank you guys!

Monkey Butler · #2 06-05-2012, 05:52 AM

Is this the way it has always been? Could be tank just doesn't take enough of a fill to bring it all the way up.

If it just started could be going bad. Pull sender and check ohms with meter to see if they are to spec.

Cam · #3 06-05-2012, 02:32 PM

I sort of had the same problem with my fuel gauge. Mine would only work when the tank was at least at halfway mark or more. As soon as the tank went below one half, down to empty the gauge would go. I finally pulled the old sending unit from the tank and replaced it with a new one. All is well now, and it works just fine. I know most guys don't really care for fuel gauges, but I like being able to see when I need to go for fuel, even if it isn't the most accurate. I guess it is for piece of mind. Cheap fix if you decide to go that route. The original sending unit was a simple float arm type and those can be bought anywhere cheap. Good luck with yours.

The Bottom Line · #4 06-05-2012, 06:55 PM

Thanks for the responses guys.
Cam- was the sending unit located below the circle pop out hole located in the center of the deck? Is there a certain model I need and where did you buy yours?

Cam · #5 06-06-2012, 05:47 AM

Mine is located under the cover plate near the rear of the deck. Pop it up and take a look. it will be a round gauge with 5 screws on it and a wire going to the middle of it. Be sure when you replace it that the screw holes are lined up with the holes in the tank. It can only go on one way. Once you see it, you will understand what I mean.

rrichar1 · #6 06-06-2012, 09:27 AM

I believe you need to be looking for a pink wire, it runs from the fuel sender to the fuel gauge.

macojoe · #7 06-06-2012, 09:33 AM

don't for get the gasket when putting it together, like i did

i was smelling gas for a week before i found it. i was just getting rid of the sender when cleaning the tank, it did not work any way. But i hold 110 gal of gas and on a 80 mile trip used just 35 gal, and that is about as far asi ever go.

SkunkBoat · #8 06-06-2012, 10:17 PM

There are 2 types of fuel float sensors. Most boats have the old universal type with a float arm that requires adjustment to the tank they are being used in. If it isn't setup right, the float hits the top of the tank before the gauge reads full and/or the float drops too low and doesn't start reading anything til you have half a tank. You can buy a universal sender ($30) and read the instructions carefully when installing.
AND DON"T FORGET THE GASKET!

The newer (more $) senders are a straight vertical rod and must be matched to the depth of the tank.

and remember...the bottom half of a v-belly tank holds less gas than the top half...think about it.

Monkey Butler · #9 06-07-2012, 09:18 AM

What Skunk said. I replaced mine with the vertical float rather than the swing arm. More money but buy the right length and it is plug and play.

I really don't want to run out of gas so I went with the belt & suspenders approach for fuel managemant and also bought the fuel flowsensor and fuel level sensor for my Lowrance HDS GPS.

The fuel flow sender just splices into the fuel line and one wire to the GPS "network". You punch in how many gallons you put in the tank and it calculates gallons used/remaining, MPG, GPH, DTE, etc. just like in fancy cars.

The fuel level sensor connects to the existing tank sender and sends the level to the GPS display. The cool part is that you can program it to compensate for what Skunk was talking about with the V belly tank holding less gas in the bottom half than the top. So if you have a 100 gallon tank when you burn 25 gallons you tell it 3/4 full, 50 gallons, 1/2 full, etc. so that even though the tank level is say half full there may only 25 gallons left. You program it and it will read 1/4 instead of 1/2 full.

The sensors were around $80 each which I thought was cheap insurance and it gives you lots of stuff to play with.

Two things that I hate are being dead in the water from running out of gas or dead batteries yet most of the times you see someone broken down it is for one of these reasons.

summercooler1 · #10 06-20-2012, 08:40 PM

I replaced my sender with a Moeler mechanical fuel meter. I have a fuel flow meter but this Moeler gives me the correct amount of fuel and needs no power.