Fuel Gauge Quit

Today I had about 1/4 tank of fuel and was going to the station to fill it up, when all of a sudden the gauge bottomed out on empty. I went ahead and filled it up but the gauge is still on empty. Does this sound like a fuel sending unit that has failed?

If so are the hard to replace, and are the very expensive?



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James Westerfield
88: Black Exterior Raven Interior,190,000 Miles
Gillis Valve, Densacharger Cold Air Kit W/K&N, Polished upper from Dan E. 4 point cage, black cloth Corbeau seats
(wish I had sprung for the leather ones) 5 point Grant harness

Could be?...but I would check the gas guage insert in the dash first, replace it w/ one from the junkyard...much easier than dropping tank. I changed sending unit and nothing, then I checked wires,good, finally put j/y gauge in and it worked [Image: smile.gif] good luck bro.

Try the gauge first & see if that solves the problem. If not, then I would say that either the float has a hole & it fills with gas (That happened on my very first TC) or the sending unit finally went in the crapper.

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Tony Sceia -

HIS - Red 88 TC, Med Red with Raven Leather & every option, Walbro 255, 3" SS Downpipe with Magnaflow Dual SS 2.5 Cat Back system, 3-core Radiator, Star Stage 3 Clutch, Rebuilt T-5 Tranny, 4:10 rear, 140 MPH Speedo, New Paint, Headlights, Refinished Snowflakes & New Tires.

HERS - Blue 87 TC, fully loaded with every option, Gilies Valve, K & N Filter, 3-core Radiator...just needs a little body work & a new paint job.

87 TC - Bought as a Parts Car, & will remain a parts car now that I found the blue one.

I put in a gauge that worked in another car so it looks like I am stuck pulling the tank.

I hope the staps dont break.


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James Westerfield
88: Black Exterior Raven Interior,192,000 Miles
Gillis Valve, Densacharger Cold Air Kit W/K&N, Polished upper from Dan E. 4 point cage, black cloth Corbeau seats
(wish I had sprung for the leather ones) 5 point Grant harness.


91 Ranger 2.3 W/260000 miles. Just an beater to drive to work

Just take your time and use lots of PB Blaster.

It gets much easier after the first couple of times. Unless you recently changed the fuel pump I'd go ahead and drop a new one in. I just don't enjoy that job and I guess I'm lazier than I am cheap.

I would pull the cluster and check the resistance to ground from the sender input terminal to see what it is. Pulling the cluster is a PITA, but no where near as bad as dropping the tank. If resistance is in spec for how much gas it in the tank (about 10 ohms with tank full, about 73 ohms bone dry), you have a cluster ot gauge problem. If resistance is out of spec at cluster (probably would indicate an open circuit), trace the wiring from cluster to tank looking for a break, bad connector, etc before dropping tha tank.

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Jeff Korn

88 Turbo Coupe: Intake and exhaust mods, T3 turbo at 21 psi, forced air intercooler, water injection, bypass valve, Ranger roller cam, subframes, etc., etc.. // 86 Tbird 5.0 (original owner): intake, exhaust, valvetrain mods, 100 HP nitrous, ignition, gears, suspension, etc., etc.... // 91 Escort: Bone stock winter car // 04 Taurus Duratec (wifes car)

My fuel gauge quit also, and I figured out last night it was related to my broken igntion switch, which took a few console lights out, a few gauges, and my A/C. I had to keep turning the car off and back on for it to stay on. Hey! I think I saw another post last night where a guy had the same problem and couldn't figure it out. Time to go find that.

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Ryan Harris

1988 TC, 5 speed, all options including sunroof

1987 3.8L V6, C4, 160K miles, no options (winter car, when it works)

RIP 1987 TC, "Built" A4LD, 119K miles, all options except sunroof

My Audio Mixes

Bad ig. sw. can cause the oil, fuel, temp gauges to all quit working at the same time, but bad switch can not and will not cause just one of the 3 to quit operating.

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Jeff Korn

88 Turbo Coupe: Intake and exhaust mods, T3 turbo at 21 psi, forced air intercooler, water injection, bypass valve, Ranger roller cam, subframes, etc., etc.. // 86 Tbird 5.0 (original owner): intake, exhaust, valvetrain mods, 100 HP nitrous, ignition, gears, suspension, etc., etc.... // 91 Escort: Bone stock winter car // 04 Taurus Duratec (wifes car)

humm.. Well, in that case, my gas gauge is dead now too then lol

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Ryan Harris

1988 TC, 5 speed, all options including sunroof

1987 3.8L V6, C4, 160K miles, no options (winter car, when it works)

RIP 1987 TC, "Built" A4LD, 119K miles, all options except sunroof

My Audio Mixes

My dash is already partly apart so it wont take that much more to pull the gauge cluster out. I will gladly try that before dropping the tank.

Thanks Jeff

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James Westerfield
88: Black Exterior Raven Interior,192,000 Miles
Gillis Valve, Densacharger Cold Air Kit W/K&N, Polished upper from Dan E. 4 point cage, black cloth Corbeau seats
(wish I had sprung for the leather ones) 5 point Grant harness.


91 Ranger 2.3 W/260000 miles. Just an beater to drive to work