Fuel Gauge reads 3/4 then sticks on Full ??

[Harold9248]

1996 Oceanis 321 - fuel gauge was reading 3/4. After motoring @ 1000 RPM's for 2 hrs on a calm day, gauge suddenly read "FULL"??

While motoring into slip, engine died. Restarted, then immediately died.

Sounds like it is out of fuel.

1. How do you manually sound the fuel tank to check for remaining fuel volume? The intake fuel hose has a couple of bends between the deck and the tank, so a straight stick won't work.

2. Any ideas on why the fuel gauge started immediately going to FULL when the ignition key is turned on? When key is turned off, gauge goes to empty, normal reading.

Thanks, Harold Galveston Bay

 

[Stu Jackson]

Sender or ground or wiring connection

caused the gage to go flukey on you. You should consider the gage as only a backup, calculate your average fuel use in hours per gallon (and/or gallongs per hour), and refill accordingly. Gages can be horribly misleading also because tanks are rarely rectangular, so the readings aren't linear. Rather than probing it and poking with a stick, fill it up (carefully) and start keeping records of your use. A fuel log is an important piece of information.

 

[mac1840]

Harold,

At least yours lasted longer than mine. I've got a 2004, 331 and the same occured two months ago. Fortunately, we made it back but I second Stu's comment. I ran the calculations base upon my hour meter and knew I had sufficent to make it back to the slip.
The sender went out in my system, which is apparently very common. The replacement sender/gauge system at West was cheaper than the sender along through Bene. By the way, you should check on the ohm's range for your sender, for me the new sender and the factory gauge weren't compatible and it was easier to replace the whole thing.

One recommendation, all replacement senders have to adjusted in height and float arms length to provide a fairly accurate reading of your tanks volume. When you take out your broken sender (assuming this is the problem), use it as a template for the new sender and compare the new sender's recommended adjustments to the existing one. It should be fairly close. If your tanks empty, its a good time to do this.

Last recommendation, if you filled your tank, be careful removing the existing sender as a fairl amount of fuel will in the fill lines above the unit ie, it will flow out when you loosen the sender. For the 331, my tank is starboard and fill point on the port side so its considerable amount of diesel that can spill.

If I can be any help, let me know.

Mac