now the fuel gauge

[sportpig]

I figured out for my temp gauge the wire to the sensor wasn't working. now the fuel gauge how do i test it. according to schematics both gauge end up in a pigtail. any openions or advice ?

[BenM]

You could go under the car and pull it off the sender. You should have a look under there as the grounds tend to rust off and cause bad readings, and the hoses are ignored and dry-rot away.

[vangremlin]

You can test to see if it is the gauge or sending unit the same way you test the temp sending unit.  Take the wire off the sending unit, ground it, and the gauge should go to full when you have the ignition in the on position.  If it goes to full, then the gauge is good and there is a problem with the sending unit.  If the gauge doesn't react then its a problem with the gauge or the wiring, and also maybe the sending unit.

[sportpig]

I I wired in a different fuseblock from a concord . I tried to match. i must of done something wrong . The sensor wire for the temp gauge isn't connected somehow so i ran a jumperto the dash, pulled the sensor ran a ground around it n held a lighter under it and it worked. so basically what color wire from the pump is the sensor wire. I will bypass that from the original one on the cluster and see if the gas gauge works. if it does I'm home free.

[vangremlin]

From the 1981 wiring diagram, the fuel sending unit should have two wires.  One is black that goes directly to ground.  The other is a tan wire that goes from the sending unit all the way to the instrument cluster (with one intermediate plug with multiple wires, not sure of the location of that, the fuel sending unit uses the tan wire on both sides of the plug).  The wire connects to the instrument cluster in the vertical connector, 3rd wire from the top.

Good luck!

[sportpig]

I know the tan wire lol. is it supposed to be gused or is it firect to cluster ?

[vangremlin]

I don't think the tan is fused as it is not a power lead, just goes to ground via the sending unit

[carnuck]

direct to cluster. Sometimes the solder on the pins behind the gauges melts and disconnects (moreso on Jeeps)

[sportpig]

Well I assume the gas gauge works. I watched the cluster with the key on and the gauge bottomed out like a rocket when i sniped the beige. i put it back and the gauge pops to under a quarter.If I push the needle to full it goes back to under a quarter and if I push it to empty it pops up. the way i look at it is if it didn't top out , bottom out or did nothing at all i would say it didn't work. The easy way would go to the gas station and start pumping. gas and look but its kind of half apart and would be an inertesting trip lol.