Re: More On Fuel Gauge

[Gary Stark <redbakstark@xxxxxxxxx>]

Jack,

Please permit me to confuse this issue even more. <g>

> Last week there was a question about the erratic 
> operation of a fuel gauge
>
> in a '74 GTV. I responded that mine just started 
> exhibiting the same behavior so I pulled the sender
> from the tank and tested it. I used a VOM (yes, the
> archaic type with a needle that moves...just like a
> fuel gauge) and the resistance followed a nice smooth 
> curve from about 5 ohms (at the "Full" end) to
> several hundred (at the "Empty" end). There were
> no breaks or discontinuities. I even opened it up for 
> an inspection. The wire was wrapped tightly to the
> board and the "finger" seemed to follow
> it smoothly.
...
...

> Any and all speculation invited.

Sorry, I can't speculate on that, but ...

in my spider, the normal (it's been like this for the time I've had
the car - 4 years now) is the the gague works when the tank has been
recently filled, and when it's nearly empty.  For the most part
though, it's as if it's open circuit. 

This is not a problem though, as the only time that I really NEED to
know what my fuel level is, is when I need to fill it up. So, I fill
her up, the gague works. I drive her around ... it shows full ... then
drops to the "off" position for some time, then resumes working at
approximately 25% fuel remaining. I know that I ned to fill up again
rsn.

BUT ....  :)

Every year, in late spring or early summer, this behaviour changes.
The gague typically at this time of year reads far more
optimistically. Where it might have read 25% full, it will now read 50%!

Although it appears to work more of the time, I suspect that it's
something to do with humidity or the expansion of the fuel or
something like that. 

And as I said, this is the typical behaviour for this car; I've
observed this every year that I've had it.

As Jack says ... Any and all speculation invited.


g.
Gary Stark              74 Alfa Spider
gstark@domain.elided  87 Alfa Milan (truncated)
http://redbacksWeb.com  91 Mercedes 190E
Up over in Dallas from down under in Sydney.

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