Hi.
I've been reading this forum for a while now, and you guys have some great info on here. It helped me in recently changing my power steering pump. (although now it looks like the bottom seal on the box is leaking. )

Anyways, I have a 1987 F250 4x4 with the 300 I6, 3.55 gears, and a 4-speed with granny and overdrive. (Any idea which tranny this is?) After I got it, I put new 285/75/16's, wheels, and a single 3" exhaust with the front cat and a rear flowmaster. It is a great truck.

It has two tanks (and the front one appears to maybe be leaking, although could that possibly be left over brake fluid from blown wheel cylinders?) It had a short in a wire to the computer a while back and that has been fixed and everything runs well. My problem is with the fuel gauge. When I fill it (either tank), the needle is well past full. It doesn't move until about half a tank, then it starts bouncing back and forth, sometimes incredibly fast and LOUD, until it is almost empty, at which point it rests under E. That is my "gas light" to tell me to fill up. I changed the gauge cluster about a year ago, thinking it was fried from that wire maybe. No help. I have been living with it, but it just drives me crazy when it bounces so loud, it sounds like my blinker is on.

Any ideas?


Thanks.
Will

 

traveezy

Wacky fuel guages is a common problem .. I think if you do a search you'll find a lot of discussion. On my 89 F150 the gauges read false empty, but I just track the milage.

I think the sender units need replacing, and some discussion talks about how to do that if your'e interested.

 

thanks. Is it possible both are out??
Any other thoughts?

Thanks, Will

 

TRAVeezy- Hey man my father had the same problem with his 88 superduty. Its probably the sending units they get twitchy with age and also if you do change out the sending units make sure that your connectors are making good contact. the can also be a contributing factor as well.

 

alright. Thanks guys. I guess I will start looking into replacing the sending units. I appreciate the input.
Traveezy

 

traveezy

I doubt both sending units would be defective at the same time. The culprit has to be something that would be common to both tanks. Do your other gauges work OK when the fuel gauge needle starts dancing? On the back of the instrument panel is mounted a small voltage regulator just for the gauges. If that component fails or gets loose (bad ground) a false voltage output will effect the other gauges with erratic operation. Just a thought.

 

Yeah, the other gauges seem to work fine. I already replaced the cluster, thinking that myself about a year ago. The thing is, I have only had the truck a year+ and the gauges have both done it the whole time,so I wonder if they didn't go out over time separately? Anyways, I think I will get under there and do some testing of the wires to make sure the gauge is reading all right.
Thanks.