My Fuel sender Bad?

[OilPatch197]

'84 Ranger, the gauge always reads 1/8 of a tank or less with a full tank.

Okay, so I need to do this:

There's an issue with floats sinking on these trucks. To test the sender, unplug the four pin connecter at the tank and test the resistance on the sender. if it seems normal rock the truck and the resistance should change slightly as the fuel sloshes around. If the resistance is within the normal range but does not change when you rock the truck, the float has probably sunk. If the sender reads open the sender has a problem.
To test the front part of the circuit you will need either a resistor substitution box or a few resistors, a 33 and a 47 ohm should do. connect a resistor from the wire that comes from the gauge to ground and see what the deflection is on the gauge. different resistor values should give you different readings on the gauge.

So to get to it, I would like to take off the bed, disconect/remove taillamps and wires, remove tool box, remove the three fuel neck screws, and remove the six T-55 torx screws.

and if I determine that the float is bad, I've read somewhere on this forum that you can order a new one from Ford, but does anyone know that part number?

 

[cocoasranger]

Mine reads a little above empty when it's below freezing no matter how much fuel is in the tank. When it warms up to 50 or 60F the guage reads about accurate. Figure that one out.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I never worried much about it... I always just figured out how many miles I could travel (on average) to go from a full tank to a quarter tank. Then when I fill up just flip the trip odometer to zero and start counting. I even do that in my Ranger cuz even for it being pretty new the needle never seems to be very accurate (I've seen it read full when I had burned off 5 gallons of gas in a 20 gallon tank, and I've seen it read Empty when I had at least 4 gallons in the tank).

 

[Totalled]

They usually are wrong. The float sinks, or like my truck, the printed circuit rheostat wears off and they just stop working at all.

 

[OilPatch197]

I never worried much about it... I always just figured out how many miles I could travel (on average) to go from a full tank to a quarter tank. Then when I fill up just flip the trip odometer to zero and start counting. I even do that in my Ranger cuz even for it being pretty new the needle never seems to be very accurate (I've seen it read full when I had burned off 5 gallons of gas in a 20 gallon tank, and I've seen it read Empty when I had at least 4 gallons in the tank).

This was what I was doing until my trip odometers gear striped out!

But I priced a new sender, $80. Are the bed bolts super tight?

I've read on TRS somewhere about pin holes in the float, and I can solder on a new float from Ford and save some $$$.

 

[srteach]

For a few days before attempting to remove your bed, get under the bed and spray the bolts with pblaster each day. The T55 bolts hold the bed on. Undo the three fuel neck screws and there is a plug underneath the back of the bed on the driver's side just under the taillight. No need to remove the taillights. Unplug it and the bed is ready for removal.

 

[mudnsnow]

Where are you from....... Here in Quebec the easiest way to access the fuel sender is to remove the tanks due to rust problem( lot of calcium to de-ice the road in winter). I've try to remove mine and it didn't turn at all.

 

[dude772]

yea but then you have to deal with the $350 strap for the gas tank if it happens to break, which is the case more often than not.

I vote take the bed off, expecially if the straps look crusty. I took my bed off with a torch to the bolts.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

Last bed I took off involved a T-55 socket, breaker bar, and 3' cheater pipe. Tried using my impact gun but it just wasn't doing the job (supposed to be a 550 ft/lb impact gun but I was doing better with the breaker bar an cheater pipe). I think I got 3 to unscrew and the other three I managed to get to snap off.

But bolts are cheap, lol.

FWIW, I just swapped gauge clusters in my choptop, I think I paid $40 for a gauge cluster from the one yard around here... way easier to do than dropping a gas tank, lol.

 

[VaGent]

Hey guys here is a little trick that actually works as I have done it on several of my friends BIIs & Rangers. Once you get the bed off the Rangers (if you do at all) or drop the tank on the BII, remove the sending unit carefully. Dry it off, blow it off or just let it set out until it is dry. There is a plastic cover over the wire wound sending unit under the plastic cover that gets corroded from the gas over a period of time causing to not read correctly. Take a #2 wooden pencil with the eraser on it & "gently" rub it across the wire wound resistor & the wiper that's attached to the float arm itself. After you do that, take either some contact cleaner of some rubbing alcohol on a "q-tip" & clean it. Put it all back together & it will read correctly. The floats are still avaiable from FORD & cost like $10.00 each. You have to be very careful & use very LOW HEAT when soldering it back on the float arm or else you will burn a hole in it. Use a low wattage solder pencil type iron when doing this. The last one I fixed for a friend of mine was over 2 1/2 yrs ago & it's still working & acurate too.

You can connect a ohm meter to the unit before you put it back in the tank to make sure it is reading correctly. Read the ohms from top to bottom of the float arm & then stop it middle way through the range of travel & that should be half full. Take the readings on the meter from empty, then full & divide that in half & that should tell you what half full should be so once you actually put the float arm in half way, it should be pretty darn close to what the readings tell you. Hope that helps.

I don't have an "easy fix" for taking the bed bolts out of a Ranger other then to use PB Blaster for 6 months PRIOR before trying to get them out. Those things can be a PITA for sure.

 

[OilPatch197]

Hey guys here is a little trick that actually works as I have done it on several of my friends BIIs & Rangers. Once you get the bed off the Rangers (if you do at all) or drop the tank on the BII, remove the sending unit carefully. Dry it off, blow it off or just let it set out until it is dry. There is a plastic cover over the wire wound sending unit under the plastic cover that gets corroded from the gas over a period of time causing to not read correctly. Take a #2 wooden pencil with the eraser on it & "gently" rub it across the wire wound resistor & the wiper that's attached to the float arm itself. After you do that, take either some contact cleaner of some rubbing alcohol on a "q-tip" & clean it. Put it all back together & it will read correctly. The floats are still avaiable from FORD & cost like $10.00 each. You have to be very careful & use very LOW HEAT when soldering it back on the float arm or else you will burn a hole in it. Use a low wattage solder pencil type iron when doing this. The last one I fixed for a friend of mine was over 2 1/2 yrs ago & it's still working & acurate too.

You can connect a ohm meter to the unit before you put it back in the tank to make sure it is reading correctly. Read the ohms from top to bottom of the float arm & then stop it middle way through the range of travel & that should be half full. Take the readings on the meter from empty, then full & divide that in half & that should tell you what half full should be so once you actually put the float arm in half way, it should be pretty darn close to what the readings tell you. Hope that helps.

I don't have an "easy fix" for taking the bed bolts out of a Ranger other then to use PB Blaster for 6 months PRIOR before trying to get them out. Those things can be a PITA for sure.

Hm, I wonder can 10% ethanol can contribute to sending unit failure? I've read someplace, it eats the printing on older cards (not designed for alcohol) over time.