36 Fuel Gauge not working !!!

[Voycey]

Hi Guys

My fuel gauge has not worked ever, well maybe once many eons ago. I suspect the sender unit, is there a foolproof method of testing the unit.I have tried two units, there is power to the gauge and the feed to the sender unit is all good. I ran a direct wire to the gauge from the sender just in case to no avail. I tried running a ground wire from the screw on the sender unit then turned the switch momentarily, the gauge needle moved up towards full so the gauge seems to be working or did !!! Not sure of next step. Any help is always appreciated.

Cheers

 

[TerryOH]

When you ran the ground wire to the sender did you connect it to the body of the sending unit ( one of the screws that mount the sending unit to the tank) or to the electrical terminal for the wire from the gauge? If you connected it to the wire from the gauge then, the gauge, the power to the gauge and the wire from the gauge to the sending unit are good and your problem is either the sending unit or the ground to the sending unit, so connect a good ground wire temporally to the body of the sending unit, if the gauge doesn't read properly the sending unit is defective. Before buying another sending unit carefully remove it and inspect the float make sure it is not full of fuel, then pry open the top and spray an electrical cleaner on the entire interior and clean it out, reassemble and try it out before installing by attaching the ground wire and the terminal wire, if you can't get it to work it appears you need another sender.