Quote:
Originally Posted by LandYaghtLover
If I recall there is a small nut on the bottom. If you remove that the case will slide off. There are very thin wires inside. Three maybe? I forget. But its possible they are damaged, corroded or dirty. If it sat for this long I would recommend taking a close of look possible at all parts or you will just be chasing a vicious circle. Somewhere on here is the proper ohm readings for the sending unit. So with those you can read it as you manipulate it out of the car. If its fine you can probably put it back and never have to question it again.
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Let me add a little information to this. Pam, do not remove the cluster yet. It is MUCH more likely to be the fuel sender.
The fuel sender is held in by 5 or 6 nuts which I assume you have removed since you indicate the sender makes a sound when you tip it upside down, etc. If you wish to dismantle it, on the bottom there is a plastic disk surrounding a nut. Remove the plastic disk/nut, use pliers if necessary. It will just unscrew. Then carefully remove the metal disk from the bottom of the sender, and then carefully remove the plastic disk under that. At this point you can carefully slide the aluminum tube down from the top of the sender, wiggling it left and right a little. What you are left with is the sender completely exposed.
It has two guide wires that have contacts touching them on the float that goes up and down. When the float is at the very bottom, it also makes contact such that the empty fuel light comes on.
My recommendation is that the first thing you do is test the sender (assembled). Attached is a pin out diagram with the resistance between pins for different positions of the sender. You will need an ohm meter to do this. If you don't have one, find someone who does and borrow it. It's an easy test and will let you know if you need a new sender.
If the sender doesn't test as per the attached image, clean or replace the sender. If you wish to test the gauge, you can do it by shorting out the pins on the plug that goes to the sender corresponding to my diagram. For example, if you short the socket corresponding to pins 2 and 3 on the diagram, the low fuel light should illuminate on your dash. With the plug disconnected and nothing shorted, the gauge should read full (or past full). With pins 1 and 2 shorted the gauge should read empty.
The gauge will only read things if the ignition is in the on position.
Does this help?
cheers
Scott