VDO Fuel guage on my 331 has just started to read "full" all the time. I'm quite sure after last week's journey that we came back in on vapors. Any suggestions or experience on whether its the sender or gage? I'm leaving the tank empty in case its the sender since the access is through the aft berth which is likely to be messy. I thought that a guage that reads full all the time had a ground short but all the ground connections seem solid. Any help would be appreciated.
Stuck fuel gage
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mac,
I bought a generic from WM. They're easy to calibrate. Take your old one out, wipe it off good, lay the whole thing on a rag and note the angle of the swinging float arm to the vertical armature and match that angle on the new sender adjustment. That will be very close. You can fine-tune it even further by having someone fill the tank while you watch the fuel level rise thru the sender hole. DON'T OVERFLOW IT! Put the sender in, carefully, put two screws in to hold it, turn on the key and see where the gauge needle settles and adjust the float angle, but it's not really necessary. One piece of advice; after you're all buttoned up, don't fill the tank so full that fuel rises into the fill hose. That hose is permeable and the smell of diesel will fill the cabin. Know how much to put in and what the gauge shows.
I bought a generic from WM. They're easy to calibrate. Take your old one out, wipe it off good, lay the whole thing on a rag and note the angle of the swinging float arm to the vertical armature and match that angle on the new sender adjustment. That will be very close. You can fine-tune it even further by having someone fill the tank while you watch the fuel level rise thru the sender hole. DON'T OVERFLOW IT! Put the sender in, carefully, put two screws in to hold it, turn on the key and see where the gauge needle settles and adjust the float angle, but it's not really necessary. One piece of advice; after you're all buttoned up, don't fill the tank so full that fuel rises into the fill hose. That hose is permeable and the smell of diesel will fill the cabin. Know how much to put in and what the gauge shows.
Works well.
Larry,
I did the swap already (gage and sender) but had to take the sender apart to get it out of the tank. There was barely enough room between the tank and swim platform to get it out, about 40 minutes just to get the unit out of the tank.
Taking it apart mucked up the ability to match the configuration with the new unit but the new unit does work well. I will have to "calibrate" it by physically measuring the fuel depth and bending the arm to have the gage read correctly. Right now its only close. I'm just going to slide a tape measure in and take the reading off of that to the tank height.
Good point on the fuel lines, I didn't think of them as being that permeable.
I did find my flux gate as a bonus..
Thanks for suggestions. Its reassuring to know the aftermarket works well and it was a 1/3 the cost of new VDO setup.
Mac
Larry,
I did the swap already (gage and sender) but had to take the sender apart to get it out of the tank. There was barely enough room between the tank and swim platform to get it out, about 40 minutes just to get the unit out of the tank.
Taking it apart mucked up the ability to match the configuration with the new unit but the new unit does work well. I will have to "calibrate" it by physically measuring the fuel depth and bending the arm to have the gage read correctly. Right now its only close. I'm just going to slide a tape measure in and take the reading off of that to the tank height.
Good point on the fuel lines, I didn't think of them as being that permeable.
I did find my flux gate as a bonus..
Thanks for suggestions. Its reassuring to know the aftermarket works well and it was a 1/3 the cost of new VDO setup.
Mac
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