mustang electrical question

[bluelespaul]

so driving the mustang yesterday and all the sudden the gas gauge decides to stop working. it just fell straight to E. i know i had gas because about 10 minutes before that i put 20$ in her. so today i go to start it and it magically works again. then i drive for 5 minutes and its back to E, drive for ten more minutes its back to where it should have been reading and then it stopped again.

since the car is so old and all original i think its the gauge itself. my mom thinks its wiring. my dad thinks i should just buy a chevy( because apparently chevys never have any problems and are alot easier to work on)

so what do you think?

[spc]

chevy's are crap, buy a porsche    My moms classic mercedes has issues like that also.   It's usually the actual gauge, but why not go ahead and replace the gauge and wiring.

[ohgood]

Any of the 'big three' are questionable. That was before and after they were actually made in the US.

Given the problem comes and goes, I'd suspect the sending unit (in the tank), but since I'm lazy I'd check the dash unit first.

Your manual (haynes or whatever) should give you ideas what voltages/amperages it needs to function.

Good luck

[bluelespaul]

ive already replaced the sending unit. and all the wires to the gauge are (were?) good when i replaced it. 

made a hell of a mess when i did it too. i thought i only had about a gallon or two in the tank so i opened it to replace the unit and after we filled 7 2litre dr. pepper bottles we said f%$k it and just let it empty out on the floor and it still took a bag of kitty litter to soak up and about 3 days for the smell of gas to get out of my house. needless to say my mom wasnt very happy.

[spc]

  Don't feel bad I just drained almost 5 qts of oil out of my gixxer onto the carport floor   took 50lbs of cat litter to contain it

[mach1]

sounds more like a wiring issue Fords are notorious for having shoddy wiring. Check the loom from the sending unit and if its fine then check the connector behind the guage. I had the sam problem with a 94 stang I was working on and in ended up being a short between the sender and the guage, I went ahead and replaced the said wire and the problem was gone.

[darb85]

Plus one on the sending unit.  if not that, check the guage, then the wireing.

My Corvair's Guage decided it wanted to peg to full and it was just the sending unit.

[bosozoku]

since the car is so old and all original i think its the gauge itself. my mom thinks its wiring. my dad thinks i should just buy a chevy( because apparently chevys never have any problems and are alot easier to work on)

How old is the car? If the fuel gauge is the only electrical gauge (temp, oil pressure, tach, speedo may well be mechanically operated in a 60s car), it could be the instrument voltage requlator, which is designed to provide a constant reference voltage (lower than electrical system voltage which fluctuates quite a bit) to the gauges.

-b.

[sledge]

If it is an electricaly operated gauge I too will go with the voltage regulator (or stabiliser), its a box-shaped plug in device, usually found somewhere on the rear of the instrument cluster. Cant see American cars differeing much from UK ones in this respect.

[bluelespaul]

haha already replaced the voltage regulator and the sending unit. my vote goes to gauge but tonight in gonna check the continuity of the wires and see if the gauge is getting any juice. i love having my own multimeter

[Jughead]

Check and see if it has a Seperate Fuse.The Fuse Could be Building up Resistence.

Or it Could be the Sender itself.

Oh and don't buy a Chevy unless you want T-R-O-U-B-L-E.