Fuel Level Sender?

[rrweather]

I am havng a problem with my fuel guage. When the boat is still or sitting on the trailer (IE, fuel in tank not splashing around), the fuel guage will bounce between the current fuel level and about 1/4 tank less. Basically if the tank is full, the needle will show full, then bounce to 3/4, then back to full. When the tank is full, it isn't too big of a deals since I'm not worried about running out of gas. If I go out fishing for a few days in between filling it up, it becomes a little more important to get an accurate fuel load. I am thinking that it could be the sending unit mounted on the tank. Any thoughts? Anyone changed one of these out? I wouldn't know where to start looking for one. Thanks for the help.

[fridaysoff]

Fuel guages on boats have been known to be less accurate than your automobile guage for years. It probably has a lot to do with the way a boat sits and is always rocking and rolling. In a lot of the older model boats it was common for about 10-20% of the fuel to be unusable and you sometimes ran out of fuel because it would not pick it up. I use the guage as a backup. I fill my tank after each outing for safety reasons, (peace of mind,knowing that its full when I leave the dock) and only use the guage as a back up plan to watch what I think the fuel flow should be. It also helps keep water build up in the tank from taking place due to condensation. If the tank is full there is no room for water to accumulate from warm days/cool nights. I have found my guage works almost identical to the way yours bounces; about a quarter tank off. Good Luck.
John D.

[rrweather]

Thanks for the reply. I wouldn't be worried if the needle was bouncing while the boat was moving. Then the splashing of the fuel could be blamed for the needle bouncing. This happens almost all the time, even when the boat is sitting still on the trailer. It seems like the signal to the guage is ether intermitent or the signal itself is causing the guage to bounce. In the summer, I also usually fill the tank up before every outing because we do a lot of running at the lake. Over the winter fishing period, we don't run as much so a full tank isn't required. Plus it would be nice to burn up some of the "old" gas in the tank. I figured if there was an easy fix, I would give it a shot. I'd also like to tackle the overflow problem when fueling that has been mentioned on the forums as well. Between the overflowing fuel during fueling and the jacked up guage, it's hard to know if the tank is ever full when I leave the pumps. Thanks again for the reply.

[aronlevin]

Are you in the boat walking around on it. I can get mine to slosh around a lot when on the trailer if the fuel is low. With a full tank it will not slosh around. try to turn the ignition on and get off the boat and come back in 5 min to check. If that does not soleve your problems try and clean up electrical connections and use meeter to check electrical current. If that turns out to be ok and problem is still there order a new sending unit from dealer.

[Mud Runner]

Replacing the sender is pretty simple. Livorsi Marine makes a relatively inexpensive sender that works with your existing guage. It's been around for quite some time and was the subject of a test in Trailerboat magazine along time ago. It does not use a float so the swinging of the guage needle is nonexistant. It operates on pressure created by the fuel level in a tube. It's actually a tube within a tube. The only thing you need to know is the depth of your tank. The tube on the new sender is cut to size and then adjusted with a full tank so the guage reads accurately. Livorsi make alot of products for race boats that need to know where the fuel level is at among other things. Here's a link to the specs and installation document for the two wire model the also make three wire models and others. Hope this helps.

http://livorsi.com/pdf/GSFLC2-GSWLC2.pdf

This link has the other models under F for fuel

http://livorsi.com/tools.htm#Tools_F