82 gas guage problem

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Oct 12, 2018 | 02:39 PM

ray_ray

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From: Laurel hill, nc

82 gas guage problem

On my 82 it only shows half a tank on my guage when it has a full tank. As I drive and use gas, once it gets to half a tank the guage seems to work from there. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
thanks

Oct 12, 2018 | 05:34 PM

hugie82

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From: Bridgewater nj

Most likely the gas gauge float is hanging up on something in the tank. The manual will tell you how to pull the fuel pump assembly out and that will allow you to check the gauge float.

Oct 12, 2018 | 05:49 PM

0Willcox Corvette

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From: Jeffersonville Indiana 812-288-7103

St. Jude Donor '08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15

Typically the liner in the tank goes bad and when this happens gas gets behind the liner and pushes it outward. When this happens the float will come in contact the liner and only go up as far as it can.

You can remove the sender from the car, there are tons of info on how to do this on this forum... then check the condition of the liner inside the tank and evaluate your situation.

Willcox

https://willcoxcorvette.com/
http://repairs.willcoxcorvette.com/

Oct 12, 2018 | 09:15 PM

ray_ray

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From: Laurel hill, nc

Thank you both will pull and check movement and screen.

Oct 13, 2018 | 02:07 PM

ray_ray

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From: Laurel hill, nc

Is there anyway to check the float when you have it out of the car.. just slides up and down or am I over thinking this.

Oct 13, 2018 | 07:24 PM

ray_ray

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From: Laurel hill, nc

After testing every thing I believe the resistor on the back of the fuel guage is bad. Do they still make this and where can I buy one at. Thanks

Oct 13, 2018 | 08:58 PM

C3 Stroker

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From: Youngstown Ohio

Quote:

Originally Posted by ray_ray

After testing every thing I believe the resistor on the back of the fuel guage is bad. Do they still make this and where can I buy one at. Thanks

Get a new gauge. The resistors are built into them, no need to add a separate resistor. Here....https://willcoxcorvette.com/corvette-fuel-gauge-78-82

Oct 14, 2018 | 12:16 PM

0Willcox Corvette

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From: Jeffersonville Indiana 812-288-7103

St. Jude Donor '08-'09-'10-'11-'12-'13-'14-'15

The problem is NOT the resistor, it's somewhere else....

A gauge with a blown resistor will only read slightly past 1/4 tank of fuel... and while the gauge will still operate it will only operate between slightly past 1/4 to empty. Since you said the gauge was reading 1/2 a tank this takes the resistor out of the equation. (see the picture below)

Go to the tech site and enter your year..... then search fuel gauge. Or go read this...
http://repairs.willcoxcorvette.com/w...it-testing.pdf

While some of the stuff on the site has pictures that state 1968-1976, the gauges all work the same from 1968-1982.... so the testing is the same.

So.. see the pictures below.

To bench test the gauge, apply power to the 3 oclock stud, then apply ground to the 6 o'clock stud.... the gauge should to to full as pictured below, next you'd want to ground out the ohms (9 o'clock) stud to the ground stud and the gauge will go to empty. If this works then there is nothing wrong with the dash unit... if this fails then you have a gauge issue but it's not the resistor.... Like I said above, a gauge with a bad resistor will only read slightly above 1/4 tank...