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XA Falcon: Fuel Guage Problems

16K views 10 replies 7 participants last post by  moford 
#1 ·
I have a stock as a rock XA sedan with a standard dash in it. With the change of season, the fuel guage has started not reading - I'm not sure if it has anything to do with the temperatures or not though.

When freshly filled, the guage will read fine, although it is slower to read full than it used to be. As the fuel tank starts to unload the guage will read till around 3/4 full, then nothing from 3/4-empty. The guage simply sits at it's rest state of reading empty. Fill the tank up again, and it will read full without a worry.

Is the problem likely to be in the sender or the guage? Who's experienced this and what was your remedy? Will the temperature have anything to do with the guage reading slowly, and not reading at all? I'm not really interested in sending it to a shop at the moment, it is only a minor inconvenience, and I still have a very good idea of fuel left in the tank by the mileage?

Clint
 
#2 ·
Sounds like the sender. At a guess, the wiper (that carries the current) is somehow not touching the resistance strip from 3/4 full down. Could be slightly bent, a bit of crud caught there or the strip itself could be stuffed.

Might be worth pulling the sender, use a multimeter to measure the resistance as you move the arm up and down through it's travel. If ya can get one, use an analogue (needle type) meter rather than a digital one. The needle should move smoothly over the range of the sender, with no jumps etc.
 
#3 ·
Just went thru similar issues.

Instead of mine reading empty all of a sudden, the prick gradually went down to 1/3 full and stayed there. Hmmmm, whats that rough running, yep I ran out of petol. I was trouble shooting for ages. CAN'T be fuel (a little left in the bowls) and I have a 1/3 tank!

Problem = broken earth wire. Happened to be right where the wires plugged onto the sender. Lift your boot carpet etc, should be a round? access panel which gains access to the sender and have a look.

And, yes it could also be the sender.

Should have 3 wires running to sender (example from XD)

Red: 12V power supply
Yellow/Green: Goes to gauge from sender
Black: Earth

Good luck
 
#5 ·
XD uses an electronic gauge setup, XC and earlier were just a resistance type, so only one wire. Earth is from the contact of the sender body with the tank - may also pay to ensure that the tank and sender is well earthed - in my ute, they used a braided wire, but that is because tank is held in place with straps rather than being screwed down.
 
#6 ·
If it's like the old 4 cyl Fords, the XA probably uses a (mechanical) voltage regulator to supply 5volts or thereabouts to the gauges. These can also go AWOL. They are usually bolted to the back of the instrument cluster and are usually silver about 1cm x 2cm. Sometimes they have an adjusting screw. They will have 3 connections, 12V in, GND and 5V out.
 
#7 ·
Are the connections labelled? My fuel guage has completely stopped working now, so it's time to run the tank down, check the sender, and pull the cluster out and test things out? Any advice on testing procedures for the sender would be greatly appreciated too?
 
#8 ·
XA - so old school. Fuel gauge will have one connection for sender and one for ground (or relies on casing for gnd)

Put a multimeter (on ohms) between gnd and sender connection. It should have variable resistance as you move the float. If it doesn't - sender is dead.

With the sender disconnected, check the voltage on the wire. Should be close to 5V if there is in fact a voltage regulator - or 12V if there isn't. If there is no voltage, then problem in wiring, gauge or voltage reg.

Can I interest you in a budgie bar?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v82/r00fi/XC_bull_bar1s.jpg
 
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