speedjunkie

iTrader: (3)

Did anyone else with the Speedhut fuel level gauge have issues calibrating it?

I was able to calibrate it before but it would show empty at just under half a tank. I remember having issues calibrating it last time but I don't remember what I did to finally get it to work, and this time it's not working for me at all. I've done it numerous times by the directions, and I've even tried different things like cycling power in between setting empty and full (I'm doing manual calibration since none of their settings are close enough). At first I was trying it with the hanger pulled out and moving the float by hand and had no luck, and I seem to remember being successful last time by setting it when I filled up the car. However, I tried that tonight with no luck. It's really getting aggravating because now I have no way of knowing how much fuel I have other than guessing based on miles driven.

I have an FD btw but I don't think that would make a difference. And I'm using the stock sensor and float. I would think maybe it's the sensor itself but it was working before. And the guage is a Revolution model to be exact.

DC5Daniel

iTrader: (10)

Have you contacted their tech support? I've used their live chat before and they were very helpful. Also, with a lifetime warranty perhaps something is malfunctioning and needs repair/replacement by them. Start the conversation with them and see where their troubleshooting gets you.

speedjunkie

iTrader: (3)

Yeah I emailed them last night after I posted this. The response I got so far was just asking if I'd followed the directions lol, which I did, and then some. What I was left with so far is a suggestion to test the float sensor, which seems like a reasonable request other than the fact that it just worked on the last calibration. I'm still going to test it though just to be sure.

I really don't feel like pulling this gauge and sending it back to them, but I'll do that if I have to.

speedjunkie

iTrader: (3)

I decided to finally look into the fuel level float sensor. I tested it and it showed 6 ohms full and 82.6 ohms empty, but in between it would go erratic sometimes. So I thought maybe it was the sensor but I decided to change where I put the ground cable for the hanger and see if that changed anything. It certainly did.

I rested the ground wire against the hanger that the sensor was bolted/grounded to. When I removed the wire the gauge would fall back to empty after a second or two. Now it's calibrated at all the way up for full and all the way down for empty, and although I'd rather have it calibrated with a couple gallons left at empty, I decided not to try my luck for now and just go with it lol. I might still get a new sensor, but they're a bit more than I thought, at $114. This one is over 20 years old and fairly worn. Hard telling when it'll go out, although after 20 years it still operates alright for the most part, so I guess they don't fail that often. Knock on wood.

speedjunkie

iTrader: (3)

A year or two ago I started having issues again and discovered that the taps I was using on the stock wiring behind the cluster were too loose, so I ran the Speedhut wiring all the way to the back and tapped directly into the wiring coming out of the fuel pump hanger. That worked for quite a while. Now I'm back to having issues again. For the last few months it's been reading all over the place, but at least if I filled the tank it would read close to full for a bit and I knew roughly how far I could drive. In the last couple weeks it's been reading around 1/4 tank to empty, but now it pretty much just stays on empty.

I pulled the hanger out and tested the ohms reading on the sensor again. It's doing OK for the most part, but the numbers jump around in a couple places while moving the float between empty and full, and then settle into the correct readings again. I also recalibrated the gauge using the 70E-10F setting at the 1/4 tank hash mark but the needle still doesn't move when I'm moving the float. I emailed Speedhut to see if using that setting would be OK since it's close but not exactly on my 82ish-5 ohms readings. I hope so because that would finally have the gauge reading all the way full when it's full and it will read empty a little early, which I prefer.

I'm ordering a new sensor from A.I. One Design, hopefully that cures it. I have pulled the dash a few more times since the last time I posted in this thread, maybe I damaged the wires at some point when reinstalling, but they've looked OK so far. I'm going to pull the cluster back out and verify the ohms readings at the gauge as well.

speedjunkie

iTrader: (3)

Turns out I wasn't grounding to the right part. I was grounding to the chassis instead of the fuel hanger. DOH! Speedhut did say to ground to the fuel hanger basically, and I feel like they told me this before too haha. Once I changed that, the needle jumped when turning on the key (something Speedhut suggested to indicate getting power and ground), and the needle moved through the whole range. Although it did drop to empty at one point, so the sensor needs to be replaced regardless. 28 years old, I guess it had a good run.

The 70-10 setting works pretty well actually. It will read full for a bit before dropping, and the rest of the range reads fairly close, but not perfect. At what should be about 1/4 tank on the float reads between 1/4 and 1/2 on the gauge if I remember right. And empty with the float is probably reading a little higher than it should on the gauge, unless you've solved the fuel slosh issues and/or are using a Holley Hydramat. I might keep using this setting and just set my red light to come on a little earlier. Since I haven't solved the fuel slosh issues yet, I can only use down to about 1/4 tank.

Anyway, the new level sensor should hopefully solve this issue finally.

speedjunkie

iTrader: (3)

I got the new level sensor in yesterday and that fixed all the issues. Turns out I had broken the lower tab that holds the float arm in place so it was allowed to move away from the board. Hard telling how long this has been broken, but it's all good now. And I ended up not using the 70-10 calibration. I set full to a little lower than the fullest position of the float arm, and I set empty to about 1/4 of the way from the bottom of the lowest position.
by https://www.flickr.com/photos/159205146@N07/, on Flickr
by https://www.flickr.com/photos/159205146@N07/, on Flickr