Re: Fuel Gauge Accuracy

From: Terrible Tom (SilverEightynine@aol.com)
Date: Sat Nov 18 2006 - 18:39:33 EST


jon@dakota-truck.net wrote:
> Terrible Tom <SilverEightynine@aol.com> wrote:
> : The sending units basically are resistors, that vary voltage to the
> : gauge depending on float position, thus giving a reading on the fuel
> : level.
>
> : But when it comes to the electronics of it, will a guage read properly -
> : if you take a gauge and hook it up to various sending units. For
> : example, lets assume that a chevy fuel tank with its stock chevy sending
> : unit is wired into the gauge on a dodge instrument cluster. Will the
> : dodge gauge read the fuel level in the chevy fuel tank correctly?
>
>
> It depends. A fuel gauge is designed to work within a certain
> ohm range. If your fuel sender is designed for the same range, then
> yes, it will work with the gauge, regardless of the manufacturer.
> For example, a 0-30 ohm gauge expects 0 ohms at empty, and 30 ohms
> at full. If you try to use a 0-30 ohm gauge with a 0-90 ohm sender,
> it will read accurately at empty, but once you fill the tank to
> 1/3 full, the gauge will read full, and as you continue to fill
> the tank and the resistance rises to three times the amount the
> gauge was designed for, who knows? The gauge may simply stay on
> full or I suppose it is possible that some damage may occur. In
> any case, it won't be accurate. Another caveat to be aware of
> is that not all gauges treat the lower resistance as empty. For
> example, many Mopars use a 73-10 ohm sender, which reads 73 ohms
> at empty and 10 ohms when full.
>

So basically what would need to be done, is to determine the voltage
range that the two sending units operate at and see if they are the
same. Hmm...

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------
"The word, is no. I am therefore going anyway." - James T. Kirk

75 Honda CL360, 89 Dakota, 89 Dakota 4x4, 95 Dakota 4x4, 96 Neon, 01 Ram 4x4 http://members.aol.com/silvereightynine/ AIM & Yahoo: SilverEightynine



This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Dec 01 2006 - 10:33:47 EST