Never got the fuel gauge working and after a couple tank fills, I fiinally ran out of gas and was stranded. Not since I was a kid have I ever ran out of gas.....sucks!
So, I finally got the multi-meter out and checked the sender.....nothing. Dropped the tank, pulled the sender, new spectra sender by the way......the sender had no readings on the bench. It was fried between the circular contacts and the sender lead. Odd....it's new. Bought a new one,
checked with the ohmmeter, installed, set the tank......nothing. So, wired in a autometer gauge I had and it worked just fine. Odd, so I assumed the factory gauge was bad.......but couldn't quite accept that, since I've owned dozens of chevies and not once has the fuel gauge failed. Seperated the fuse block, traced the sender lead to the block....it was wired to a hot lead just adjacent to the sender lead. Odd......I must have done this. Decided to peal back the wire loom to the starter and found I wired the yellow wire, which is the 12v starter to coil wire, to the sender. It was a really dingy yellow, appeared like tan, and that's my excuse for the mistake. Fixed that, all's good, but the factory gauge still doesn't appear to read. Went inside and put a new factory gauge in my Summit racing cart but decided to spend a bit more time figuring this out. Checked all my stuff, and turned the key on.....this time I was a bit more patient, since I refused to accept this gauge was bad......it started to move just a bit, but reeaaaallll slow. Gause these factory fuel gauges react to slosh or change, in a very slow manner. It reads fine, but took a few minutes to lower from full on full, to just a bit below full. Very happy I didn't have to pull the dash again.
