polecat702

Does the float in the gas tank need to be recalabrated, or do they wearout and need to be replaced? Mine isn't giving a correct reading as to how much fuel is in the tank. Also should I order new gaskets for the sender unit before I take it out, or are they reuseable? My 928 is an 87 S4. Thanks, Joe

SharkSkin

You may be able to just clean it up and have it work. Make sure you don't have too muh fuel in the tank then follow the writeup here.

polecat702

Thanks Dave, what a great write up. Did you have to buy the special tool to remove the plastic nut or will a big pair of channel locks work? Thanks again, Joe

GlenL

What's the incorrect behavior?

SharkSkin

Glen brings up an interesting point... at their best, they do not accurately indicate, for example, 1/4 tank.

A big pair of channellocks will probably be fine to get the cap off. Just be careful not to bugger it up. I have heard recommendations from Stan(MrMerlin) to heat the nut up in scalding water before reinstalling, presumably to get the nut to conform to the sender top and threads on reassembly. though I didn't do that and had no issues. Note to self - update my writeup with that info

Mrmerlin

soaking the nut in hot water is called for in the WSM, the hot water expands the plastic so it will be a bit more flexible and then when it cools it will add more squeeze

StratfordShark

Has anyone ever seen the pin wrench special tool referred to in WSM? How easy would it be to fabricate one?

Must admit I used a pair of water pump pliers to remove cap when I installed new sender.

Imo000

Before you pull the sending unit, have a really good look at the electrical connector. Mine had a corroded ground pin and it cause the gauge to be inaccurate. After cleaning up the pin (connector side) it has been working perfect. This is was at least 4 years ago.

polecat702

Sorry everyone I was out this afternoon, and just returned home. What I ment by no showing an accurate fuel level. On the way home from San Diego a couple of weeks ago. I fueled in S.D. filled up and the gauge showed full, all the way to Barstow. We stopped for food, aand I was going to top off, but after starting the car the gauge now showed half a tank. Gas in Ca. is way more expensive, than Nv. Anyhow got to state line and the shark started coughing pulled into the pilot and bought 30 bucks worth and the gauge never moved up or down. Car has been in the garage sience we got home till today. Put another 30 bucks in it and no change in the gauge. Its always worked well in the past. One more thing, the reserve warning lite never has come on and I know I was on fumes at state line. Thanks for all the help, Joe
PS I did pull the connector on the sending unit and the gauge went to empty, a little past. The connector was very clean, and so is the area around the sending unit. After driving the car today, zero change in position of the needle in the gauge. Only drove about 60 miles.

GlenL

Sounds like a mechanical problem with float movement. Check out that procedure and get the wires and contacts clean.

tailpipe

the few i have taken apart all that didn't work all had broken wires in them and all i did was re solder the wires back on and they seemed to work fine. the only advice i would give is to wire wheel clean the small nut on the bottom well before you take it off it seems to have some sort of sealer on it to keep the nut coming off and will jam if the threads aren't cleaned off first the rest is all easy.

MattCarp

I followed the writeup and bought some oil filter pliers to loosen the plastic ring.. That worked very well.

Imo000

Mine acted just like that and it was the ground pin at the sender.

polecat702

I wanted to post this 3 days ago, butvas everyone knows RL has been in the crapper. First let me thank everyone that posted advice on how to remedy this problem. I pulled the sender/float out of the tank per Sharkskin's pictures & instructions. What I found was really beyond anything that was stated as a possable reason for the unit not working. What I found was a large dent in the aluminum tube that encloses the float assembly. This dent wouldn't let the float rise or decend. The way I fixed the problem was by spraying a 4 ft piece of 1 1/2" sch 40 pvc pipe with WD 40 and sliding the tube down over the plastic pipe. The pvc pipe's OD is just under the sender tube's ID. I used a soft rubber mallet to tap the tube back to its original shape, when I was finished you couldn't tell there was ever a dent in the tube. I don't know how the dent got there in the first place. Only thing I can figure is maybe when I was running on fumes it got sucked in, but that doesn't make sence to me. Anyhow thanks again, Joe

JG928S4

thanks for update, on my list of things to do, mine only goes to 3/4 full.