Fuel Gauge Issue

[pontiacgp]

I replaced my defective fuel sender this morning and now my autometer sport comp II gauge is pegged full right way past full. It stays there whether the car is running or stopped with the key out. I can unplug the wires to the sending unit and the gauge does not move. If I take the red lead and ground it the needle goes towards E but will sit at various spots between E and 1/4 tank. As soon as I remove the red wire from ground and without plugging it back into the sender the gauge travels to full right. I have a stock gauge I can try but before i take my cluster apart any ideas what the issue could be?

 

[drogg1]

I replaced my defective fuel sender this morning and now my autometer sport comp II gauge is pegged full right way past full. It stays there whether the car is running or stopped with the key out. I can unplug the wires to the sending unit and the gauge does not move. If I take the red lead and ground it the needle goes towards E but will sit at various spots between E and 1/4 tank. As soon as I remove the red wire from ground and without plugging it back into the sender the gauge travels to full right. I have a stock gauge I can try but before i take my cluster apart any ideas what the issue could be?

http://www.tanksinc.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=results/category_id=159/mode=cat/cat159.htm

That gives a little bit of info. It depends on the "resistance" of your gauge and how it reads when empty and full. Does low resisistance correspond to low fuel or is it the other way around? Since you have pulled the wires from the sending unit, I am guessing a wire may have been pinched somewhere else? My only other guess is that somehow something got shorted and burned through so the gauge no longer works properly.

 

[pontiacgp]

Thanks for your post and your thoughtd. I removed the gauges and if I take the connection off the sender on the back of the gauge and put it back on the gauge will go to empty. I ran out of time tonite so it's plugged in and sometimes after shutting the car off it will return to empty. I'm thinking the sending wire may be bad so tomorrow I'm going to run a wire outside the car from the sending unit to the gauge to see what happens.

 

[pontiacgp]

I ran a wire from the sender to the gauge with the same results so I ordered another new sender..I liked the original sender that was in the tank. It was built with heavier metal and better wire and there are a few complaints with defective new fuel senders. Oh well, hopefully the next one will be good.