Gas gauge works from full to half then...

[samwyse]

My 1988 2.9 XLT has a 65 litre tank. Usually this gets me 349 km, that's when she runs dry. Tested a few times with spare gas in jerry cans.

The gas needle works until about 170km when it gets to half. After that it drops faster than is normal, it usually shows empty at about 185 km. Of course I still have plenty of fuel left.

I was thinking I had a bent float that probably got damaged if someone replaced the sending unit or something. The only reason I think this is because its so consistent.

 

[Mark_88]

My 88 Ranger did the exact same thing since the day I bought it in 2000 or so and right until I replaced it in 2002 because the tank was leaking.. When I yanked the tank in 2004 to put it in another truck...and it did the same thing after that...so...yeah, probably a wonky float.

It was annoying more than anything because at the time I was driving about 700 km a week and knew a full tank wouldn't get me there...but almost...so I made a point to simply carry more gas with me and to top up the tank on Wednesday or so...

You could probably pull the sending unit and replace the whole thing...or maybe just the float...but it is all one piece from what I saw (I have a spare right now so I can check later in necessary)...a junkyard might charge you $50...a new one is about $145 (varies from Canada to US because they are actually made in the US...or were at one time)...

I learned to live with mine...maybe someone else has a fix so hang in there...I stopped pretending to know everything yesterday...

 

[samwyse]

...
I learned to live with mine...maybe someone else has a fix so hang in there...I stopped pretending to know everything yesterday...

I think I'm going to just keep on living with it. I've got my fuel consumption on a stable leg again now that I fixed the leak in the fuel reservoir.

Maybe I'll pull one from the wrecker if I have to go there for something else