I found threads about not working properly fuel guages but not just a not working thread, so please dont be mad at me

My fuel guage isnt working at all, doesnt move ever. Its dead.
So after reading up what to do, figured Id drop the tank and suss out the float and sender unit.
But when I got under the van I discovered the wire to the sender unit had just come off So I thought Yay! I'll just connect it up and fuel guage just might work.. but no
I cleaned the terminal and tried again, but no

So now, I could drop the tank and pull the sender unit out and check the float (wont be the float coz I get no reading at all), but Im thinking it must be electrical, like there is No power getting to the sender.

Im thinking check at the fuel guage (dash) end. When I had the dash out the other day there was a single wiring loom that went into the back of the cluster, it all seemed fine. Does the plastic printed circuit have anything to do with the fuel guage? If so, I can understand it may have been damaged at some stage.

PS there is only one wire to the sender unit right?

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78 van 1300 cam extractors weber, 12" Superlights Metros Konis HiLos MP3 Amp Sub Alpine speakers and lots of fur
www.crazybitchracing.com

All I can tell you is theres about 3 wires at the gauge end and two on the sender.
The rest is up to magic.

really? I only have one at the sender end

I'll check what colour it is and see what Im missing

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78 van 1300 cam extractors weber, 12" Superlights Metros Konis HiLos MP3 Amp Sub Alpine speakers and lots of fur
www.crazybitchracing.com

yea, 2 at the sender...van should be same as sedan.

Im looking at the Hayes Manual wiring diagram:
"Wiring Diagram 10 - Mini 850 Saloon, Van and Pick-up - 1976 onwards"
Firstly - Ive got a 78 van, so will this be the correct diagram to be looking at?
Secondly - in that diagram it has only one green wire going to the sender unit, and one green wire coming out of the sender unit. Does that mean I should have 2 same coloured wires going into it or do they mean the one wire. Plain green, no trace.

I hate wiring diagrams

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78 van 1300 cam extractors weber, 12" Superlights Metros Konis HiLos MP3 Amp Sub Alpine speakers and lots of fur
www.crazybitchracing.com

'tis called a stick..
much like the checkin the oil stuff..
besides who needs petrol..
what makes a mini different from every other car?
when you stop at the petrol station, you fill it up with oil and check the petrol!
hehe
nah..wish ours worked...we just fill it up when we think we've done a few ks (or miles) or every coupla days..'course lobby just runs out
"kazzzy...come n pik me up..and bring the 'tin"
hehe...silly fuel gauges

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kaz
hey mate, looks like your cars only running on three cylinders!
haha..funny that..

'89 toyota cressida
'71 morris mini k
66 morris van

One wire at the sender is fine, it is earthed through the tank. The sender is just a variable resistor, so u should measure a voltage at the sender. Between 12v and 0 i guess. The float will measure high impedance at one extreme either full or empty. When it measures high, u will have around 12v on that wire, as it moves the resistance decreases and more current flows, causing the voltage to drop.

Hi Jill,

I've got an old van and had the same problem.

First grab a multi meter and try to measure the resistance of the sender. Just measure from the single output terminal to the tank. Hopefully you get a reading and you have a bad connection or bad earth from tank to the body.

If it's open circuit then pull the sender out. Mine was open circuit. Pull the cover off. You should recognise it as a big variable resistor. My resistance winding was broken near one end, so I just discarded the broken bit, rewound a little and connected the wire back to the terminal. Check with the multi meter again while out of the tank.

Unfortunately my problems were deeper as the meter in the speedo was gone too. I ended up pulling the guts out of it and replacing it with a modern gauge winding out of some discarded electronics. Hooked up a simple zener diode regualor too so that I always got a steady reading. But a clubbies will probably be in a better state.

You should be able to measure some voltage at the tank on the wire that goes back into the car. Ground it and see if your fuel gague moves. If it does then the rest of the circuit is fine. If no voltage, or grounding doesn't make the guage move then that may be where the problem lies.

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"Life is not like a box of chocolates... it's more like a jar of jalapenos. Whatever you do today, may burn your arse tomorrow."

I presume your temperature guage is working?

if not then it is probably your voltage regulator this can stop both gauges working (ignore this if youv'e already checked, it was in the other threads I think)

Can someone tell me if you can do the same trick as with the temperature sender ? ie:
disconnect the lead and earth it out briefly if the gauge rises then the problem is with your sender unit otherwise it is a gauge problem (or maybe both)

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Roads need more corners
A Deluxe(CG13DE), 2 Clubbies(998 and 1275) and 2 Morris 1100Ss

yup, my temp guage WAS working, but I disconnected it at the block and replaced it with another temp guage.

Thanks Zizzle, I dont have a multimeter so will ask the autosparky to have a look at it.
I'll give him your notes to make it easy for him

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78 van 1300 cam extractors weber, 12" Superlights Metros Konis HiLos MP3 Amp Sub Alpine speakers and lots of fur
www.crazybitchracing.com

Auto sparky confirmed it was the fuel sender unit, so dropped the tank this afternoon. Auto sparky wants to send it away for repairs, but Im thinking just replace.. anyone know roughly what a new sender unit is worth?
78 van has only ONE wire to the sender unit.

I found a little bit of fuel in the float too, so hopefully they give you a new float with the unit?

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78 van 1300 cam extractors weber, 12" Superlights Metros Konis HiLos MP3 Amp Sub Alpine speakers and lots of fur
www.crazybitchracing.com

Just replace the temp sender unit with a temp guage fuzzyhairman. I got mine from Supercheap, same as most auto shops stock, but you will need a "spacer" nut/bolt to bolt it into as without it the new temp probe hits the block on the other side of the water jacket

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78 van 1300 cam extractors weber, 12" Superlights Metros Konis HiLos MP3 Amp Sub Alpine speakers and lots of fur
www.crazybitchracing.com

Karcraft, all new sender unit, $85 for a van, 65 for a sedan for those interested. get your sparky to quote before comitting to get the old one fixed. $85 is pretty cheap.

Cheers

Aaron

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yup, thanks aaron, sounds good to me

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78 van 1300 cam extractors weber, 12" Superlights Metros Konis HiLos MP3 Amp Sub Alpine speakers and lots of fur
www.crazybitchracing.com

no worries jill. always happy to help a fellow van-er!
we really should have a club just for vans!

Cheers
A
aron

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