Now I know where empty is!

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Dana67Dart

Dana67Dart

The parts you don't add don't cause you no trouble
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The other day was out for a drive with the wife, all good.

I was running the tank down so I could remove the sender and do an adjustment on the full end of the swing.

Got back home guage showed between E and about 1/8 tank.

Today i pulled it out of the garage and backed it back in and onto ramps.

Replaced the plus battery wire harness from battery to starter.

Reached up under the dash and replaced the instrument constant voltage regulator with a good used unit.

Tested a mechanical NOS voltage regulator, that's a cool device but it makes the Ammeter bounce all over the place.
(Yes I had it grounded)

Then the engine quit. S#$t, s#$t, s$t.
What the heck did I do.

Hooked the regulator wires back to the modern electronic regulator. Tried again, fired up then died. S#$t, s#$t, s$t.

Maybe the tank is low enough that being on ramps there's no fuel being picked up. Pushed it off the ramps. Now it won't even fire at all.

Pushed it out to the driveway (nose down)
Still nothing. Put a bit of fuel in carb, fired up then died.

I only had 1/2 gallon in my can, so I put it the tank, still nothing.

Coasted to the flat street, more fuel in carb, fired then died.

Went to gas station got 1.25 gallons of gas put it in the tank, a little in the carb,

Fired tight up, kept running. WHOOOOOO!

From the time I parked it the other day till I restarted it after the parts replacement it ran for about 30 to 60 seconds.

Moral of the story.... Don't go under 1/4 tank!
 
Dana67Dart said:
The other day was out for a drive with the wife, all good.

I was running the tank down so I could remove the sender and do an adjustment on the full end of the swing.

Got back home guage showed between E and about 1/8 tank.

Today i pulled it out of the garage and backed it back in and onto ramps.

Replaced the plus battery wire harness from battery to starter.

Reached up under the dash and replaced the instrument constant voltage regulator with a good used unit.

Tested a mechanical NOS voltage regulator, that's a cool device but it makes the Ammeter bounce all over the place.
(Yes I had it grounded)

Then the engine quit. S#$t, s#$t, s$t.
What the heck did I do.

Hooked the regulator wires back to the modern electronic regulator. Tried again, fired up then died. S#$t, s#$t, s$t.

Maybe the tank is low enough that being on ramps there's no fuel being picked up. Pushed it off the ramps. Now it won't even fire at all.

Pushed it out to the driveway (nose down)
Still nothing. Put a bit of fuel in carb, fired up then died.

I only had 1/2 gallon in my can, so I put it the tank, still nothing.

Coasted to the flat street, more fuel in carb, fired then died.

Went to gas station got 1.25 gallons of gas put it in the tank, a little in the carb,

Fired tight up, kept running. WHOOOOOO!

From the time I parked it the other day till I restarted it after the parts replacement it ran for about 30 to 60 seconds.

Moral of the story.... Don't go under 1/4 tank!
Click to expand...
 
ha! I can relate! My old tank was full of crud, when low on gas it sucked up crap that clogged the line...( & filter)...had to blow it back in the tank with compressed air. Another 5 gallons or premium and started up and ran.
 
I've got a crappy aftermarket sender that isn't accurate and have always wondered how long it will go before I'm empty. Thought about putting a couple of gallons in a can and going for a ride in the country to find out. I would hate to run out on a busy street with all the distracted drivers around.
 
BrianT said:
I've got a crappy aftermarket sender that isn't accurate and have always wondered how long it will go before I'm empty. Thought about putting a couple of gallons in a can and going for a ride in the country to find out. I would hate to run out on a busy street with all the distracted drivers around.
Click to expand...

I don't remember who with, but we had a discussion about our dual fuel pick up locations being on the back corners of our tanks. One member ask if we had any low fuel problems, I answered no . Well I have since found out that if I lower the front end of my car, and back up the grade out of my garage , I`ll run out of gas covering the pick ups w/ 1/2 tank. I usually put gas in the car every other time I drive it, "which aint much". That time I went 3 drives w/o filling it up.------Back to the drawing board------------thinking about a 1/2 diesel pick up in the back bottom of the tank, can be installed w/o removing the tank. Getting too lazy to pull it .
 
I designed and built solid state regulators specifically for the rally inst' panels and serviced/ renewed those 3 post gauges for more than 8 years. It all began with running out of gas. The car rolled to a stop in a very dangerous position, left rear corner hanging out in rural highway, around a blind curve no less. Very lucky that it didn't get hit.
This is the third one of these cars that I have owned and by far the nicest. All of them had the same gauge issues, so not the first time I ran out of gas. And I was headed to the gas pumps every time it happened. Of course nicest ever landed in worst situation ever. That day I decided this will be fixed! Months of determination came from about 40 minutes of panic trauma.
 
Back in the day, when I was just 17 and my daily driver was my 440 'Cuda, I ran out of gas more times than I can count! Luckily, there were no 'near misses' like RedFish had. I always made it home somehow. Of course that was when the traffic was a bit lighter than it is nowadays. But, you're right, never go below 1/4 tank on the gauge, or you could be walking!
 
Dana67Dart said:
The other day was out for a drive with the wife, all good.

I was running the tank down so I could remove the sender and do an adjustment on the full end of the swing.

Got back home guage showed between E and about 1/8 tank.

Today i pulled it out of the garage and backed it back in and onto ramps.

Replaced the plus battery wire harness from battery to starter.

Reached up under the dash and replaced the instrument constant voltage regulator with a good used unit.

Tested a mechanical NOS voltage regulator, that's a cool device but it makes the Ammeter bounce all over the place.
(Yes I had it grounded)

Then the engine quit. S#$t, s#$t, s$t.
What the heck did I do.

Hooked the regulator wires back to the modern electronic regulator. Tried again, fired up then died. S#$t, s#$t, s$t.

Maybe the tank is low enough that being on ramps there's no fuel being picked up. Pushed it off the ramps. Now it won't even fire at all.

Pushed it out to the driveway (nose down)
Still nothing. Put a bit of fuel in carb, fired up then died.

I only had 1/2 gallon in my can, so I put it the tank, still nothing.

Coasted to the flat street, more fuel in carb, fired then died.

Went to gas station got 1.25 gallons of gas put it in the tank, a little in the carb,

Fired tight up, kept running. WHOOOOOO!

From the time I parked it the other day till I restarted it after the parts replacement it ran for about 30 to 60 seconds.

Moral of the story.... Don't go under 1/4 tank!
Click to expand...

You can bend the float wire arm to get it accurate.


BrianT said:
I've got a crappy aftermarket sender that isn't accurate and have always wondered how long it will go before I'm empty. Thought about putting a couple of gallons in a can and going for a ride in the country to find out. I would hate to run out on a busy street with all the distracted drivers around.
Click to expand...

That's what I did to find out exactly where it runs out of gas.
Kept a two gallon jug in the trunk until I ran out of gas.
Then I put another gallon in then adjusted the float wire arm to show empty while there was still 1 gallon in the tank to give a little margin of safety.
It took a little messing with, but knowing for sure is nice.
 
TrailBeast said:
That's what I did to find out exactly where it runs out of gas.
Kept a two gallon jug in the trunk until I ran out of gas
Click to expand...
I did the same thing with the old sender and ran out on the interstate, at speed, going up hill in a construction zone with cement dividers on both sides of the two lanes. Coasted to a small break in the deviders and yanked it into the dirt which was mud a week earlier and now was like cement, thank goodness for mopar K members
 
Picked up a 76 D100 in the early 90''s for 200 bucks. Fuel gauge had 2 readings - 3/4 when it was full, and about 30 miles after filling up, it would only read 1/4. No more, no less. I'd go 225-250 miles between fill ups. If I was taking a road trip, I carried a full 6 gallon boat can in the bed, just in case.
 
ragtopfury said:
Picked up a 76 D100 in the early 90''s for 200 bucks. Fuel gauge had 2 readings - 3/4 when it was full, and about 30 miles after filling up, it would only read 1/4. No more, no less. I'd go 225-250 miles between fill ups. If I was taking a road trip, I carried a full 6 gallon boat can in the bed, just in case.
Click to expand...

That`s exactly what my gauge does, everything in the whole system is new, but it`s an aftermarket sender / square instead of the tapered one .
 
I just put 32.5 gallons in a 32 gallon tank. I was on fumes......! Needle covered red tick mark, wasn't below it. Our CNG vans were notorious for running out of 'gas'. On a cold morning you couldn't run it with 500psi (low), but you could wait until lunch and the thing would start and get you 1 mile down the road to the CNG station! We learned and then were told that you fill it up (3600 psi) at 1/2 tank, basically every other day. I put the LED needle on the fuel guage in my Lexus a little cocked so when I filled it up, it only showed 7/8 of a tank. I corrected it.
 
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True story. My bride used to wait until the fuel light came on before getting gas. One day, one said light never came on and her car sputtered out on the highway. The Calvary came to the rescue. I reached in turned the key sputter and died. Told her she was outta gas. She said no way, and still had almost 1/4 tank. Poured gas in tank, car started and off she drove.
She never goes below 1/4 tank now
 
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