Took our 1996 Bounder, on the Ford chassis, out for our first long trip in about four months. I had filled the gas tank prior to parking it for the last four months or so. After about an hour or so of driving I noticed that the fuel guage had not moved at all. All the other gauges work correctly. I had recorded my starting mileage, so I filled it up again after a couple more hours of driving. The fuel gauge never moved from the "Full" position.
I'm thinking that the float arm is stuck inside the fuel tank, but thought I'd ask the group for any other ideas. Especially ideas on how to break it loose. I would have thought that driving the Bounder, with the fuel sloshing around, would have loosened the float, causing it to eventually drop and reflect an accurate fuel level.
BTW, the fuel pump and sending unit are only about two years old. They were replaced at a Ford dealership when the OEM fuel pump crapped out. And all was fine until recently.
Could something else cause the fuel gauge to remain on "Full"?
Thanks, Tom
UPDATE: Patiently waiting for the fuel gauge needle to move is not working.
I recently drove over 250 miles and the fuel gauge never moved a bit. It remained just above "Full" the entire trip. And it took LOTS of fuel to fill the tank again.
In the past the fuel gauge had always been pretty accurate.
Tom & Sallie Norman
Class A: 1996 Bounder 38Z, F53 chassis, 460 engine, 5K Onan, Monroe shocks and steering stabilizer, Autoformer, SurgeGuard
Class B: 1996 Pleasure-Way STW, Dodge Ram B3500 chassis, 318 engine, 2.8K Onan, Bilstein gas shocks
ALL the gauges on my 99 Ford F53 go thru the computer before they show info. My temp gauge was stuck when we first got Bortha the Bounder. The movement had some really viscous stuff to dampen the needle swings. The choice boiled down to replace the whole panel from Ford or get it repaired. I got it repaired by one of two outfits on the east coast that gave a guarantee and calibrated everything. All indications have been nominal and more accurate than before. Do a search on the internet for "Instrument cluster repairing" and it should lead you to the same people. Saved about a hunnert bucks from the 300 or so the Ford parts guys.
I have the other problem, mine reads empty all the time. I guess my problem is that the fuel sender wiper arm has broken off - due to me not keeping the fuel tank full while in storage last winter.
Your problem might be as simple as a broken ground line. If you have jumper cables, try attaching the jumper cable to the fuel tank, and to another chassis ground, say the trailer hitch. If this causes the fuel sender to read something less than full, then connect a ground wire between the fuel tank and the chassis, and this should fix the problem for good.
You really don't need to use jumper cables, any piece of wire should work, even if held there by hand, while someone else looks at the gauge with the key in the "On" but not running the engine.
Those %&^**# fuel pumps/senders are the Achilles heel of the Bounder. This week, I need to get mine changed 'cause the fuel pump craps out when it gets hot. And we need to sit & wait till it cools off. This takes a LOOONG time on rt 40 at 106 ambient. The nice man at the service garage said there's a calibration procedure he would perform so my gas gauge, for the first time in 15 years, might actually be accurate. Ask your guy about that.
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