jcolegrove

i think it's fixed! but....

so the needle never moved as gas was used.
i knew i used little over half tank, so i took the cover off, and moved the needle to little less than half. the needle seemed 'stuck' at the top of its travel and took a budge, made a click sound, then moved very very easily up and down the gauge. almost no resistance and no 'damping' feel like the temp gauge. didn't seem normal and i thought i broke it. why would it 'stick' at the top?
so i put it back in car.
it then slowly moved to empty and i thought i broke it, but it wasn't as empty reading as it gets when actually empty, so there was hope it wasn't just dead.
i put in 5 gal and it moved 1/4 tank!
filled up, took cover off and moved to full.
however, the needle is so easily moved, just the jiggling of putting the tinted cover back on moved it down and i had to move it back and gently put back to together.
so... is this the way the needle is? don't think so, as i was told the temp and gas were the same mechanism and the temp one feels 'fluid' and 'damped' and doesn't move near so easily. seems not right.
however, i know the sender's ok, and the cap fix worked apparently! thanks again lexls! i hope i don't have to start another thread about a loose gauge needle, though with mr. murphy at my heels...

LexLS

Glad you've got it set. I can't remember how the needles "feel" when moved but if yours are working then leave them now. Just keep monitoring it over this tank of gas and see if it goes down as the miles rack up. Mine goes down at roughly 100 miles for every 1/4 tank with 70hwy/30city.

I was going to write up a tutorial on this at some point. Did you replace one or both caps I mentioned?

jcolegrove

yes, i replaced the two mentioned below. actually used ones from radio shack rather than nicer ones from mouser or such. these curiosities of why a needle feels 'stuck' and has to be forced down are what i wonder about at nite....(well, some nites).

jcolegrove

so to wrap up, the gauge is working correctly-- moving like it did before the problem. so despite it moving very easily by hand, it's held tight enough to not move in the cluster. the cap fix worked!