just installed a new vulcan draw straw hopefully cures one issue now have another my fuel guage is not working and the light comes on saying im out of fuel but i know theres over 1/4 tank cause i had to drain it when i installed the vulcan draw straw had to take sending unit a part to drill all the return fuel holes and cleaned the sending unit along with the part that meters the fuel level there are only two wires going into this part but like 5 or 6 going to the plug that you plug into the sending unit is this a part i have damaged or is it just worn out or is there another part i should be looking for as a problem relay or fuses any help will be appreciated

 

A bunch of us have had the zero-read/no panic, but, WTF? issue. It's caused, most often, by the float-arm contact swinging out of contact with the variable resistor stationary part.

The fix is pretty simple, and in the less than $5 zone.

Drop the tank, uncork the big port, get the sending unit out.

The problem lies in the little pivot pin zone.

Get a small diameter screw, matching nut, ink-pen clicker spring, and a couple of washers.

Remove the cheap, disgusting, substandard, inexcusable, lowest-bidder, improperly engineered pin that earned some bastard a special place in hell.

Replace it with a stacked and tensioned arrangement of your screw, washers, spring and nut, in such a manner as to apply uniform pressure to the full sweep of the float arm.

Leave some thread protruding thru the nut, and use your plier jaws to deform them slightly, so that the nut can't back off.


Reinstall and brag for the next 30 years about your fully functional gauge

 

replaced the fuel level sending unit fixed the problem

 

I am considering buying a 1997 2500 Dodge Ram and the owner says that the fuel guage will read full when he fills the tank but 40 miles down the road the gauge goes all the way to empty and stays there untill he fills the tank again. Is this the same problem that you are explaining?

Thanks

 

yeah i would say repalce the sending unit on the side of the in tank fuel pump and that should fix it the parts are around $50-$60 and installation is really simple but you got to decide whether to remove the bed or drop the tank i had done both trying to find why my truck was stalling so having the bed off for me made it easy fix

 

ive got the full straight to empty gauge problem and though I do enjoy the looks on peoples faces when 20 miles down the road we are empty, can you get a link for where to order that part?thanks.

 

Yup. Same problem. Mine never got so bad as to just stay at "empty" the whole time.
Way-back-when, I got a new one right at the Dodge parts counter. That's the one I modified and installed before mailing my old one to the next guy in line for the pen-spring fix.