I've got a stack fuel level guage in the 3dr, but can't get it to read above empty!

its the stepper motor one, but not the pro series.

I have tried the custom callibration where you start with an empty tank and fill it.

tank is pro alloy with a VDO sender but pro have ground off the numbers on it. iirc alex said it was a 90 ohm sender, but if I set the guage to that, or anything else it still doesn't work.

any ideas people?
cheers

 

How you doing dan????hows the car coming on now???



cheers danny

 

not bad cheers danny. not really had chance to anything yet as I've been working away again.

trying to source a 2wd rear end at th mo, but I am toally broke now.

need to sell a 4x4 rear diff and I should have most of the funds for the 2wd stuff.

then I think the vibration luke was saying about is the prop bearing as there is a lot of play in it.

then sort the fuelling side, mot an tax and bring it back to you lol

but gonna be months at this rate

 

Put some fuel in it you tight cunt

 

did you not read the bit about the custom setup, where you fill it up?

specsavers for you, sonny!

 

No i did read it, but i know what your like' you probably filled it up with fresh air to save a few quid lol

 

no, i did brim it, it was at that point that i found that the tank leaks for the seal where all the gubbins goes...

why does nothing, 'just work' ?

 

I realise it dont help you but mine worked first time are you sure you have followed the instructions 100%. I did mine with the unit out of the tank & moved the float by hand if that helps.

 

cheers rod, well there is only the purple wire that you connect to the sender, then a +ve and -ve, lumination, and the 2 wires for the switch.

so im pretty sure its connected right lol. i will take it out and double check tho!

i suppose it is possible that the float is stuck down, as it was ages before any fuel went in the tank. dont really want to take it out, but if i have to i will.

 

been out pissing about with it tonight...

getting 5.39V to the sender, is that right? thought it should be 12v lol

anyway, i took the sender out the tank, and upon doing the custom callibration by just turngin it upside down to indicate full, it was still reading empty...

so got the float to move halfway, and low and behold the guage went up a bit...

so empty is actually full, and full is empty and yes, it does have a full tank of BP's finest!

tried checking all the wiring etc and couldnt see anything amis... but now the guage doesnt light up when you turn the lights on.

id had enough by that point so came in...

any ideas on the inverted reading thing? is it just a case of swapping the pos and neg wires around? or wont that work?

 

turn the tank upside down ?

 

Get some tippex and modify the "F" to an "E" and then with black marker modify the "E" to "F" - Hope that helps

 

dare i say wired up the wrong way around

 

So when the car is on its roof the gauge works fine? I'd leave it as it is then

 

Yup just turn the gauge upside down. Et voila!

 

thats what i was thinking

 

It sounds as if the polarity has been reversed!

Martin

 

the wiring harness has the +12ve and -ve in te same places as the other guages, so you have a 12v feed, 2x neg?wires that it says doesn't matter which one is conneced to earth, the white illumination wire, a purple sender wire, then a brown that is used with one of the neg wires to change the settings.

so I realy don't think its wired up wrong!

 

does anyone else have a valid input?

 

Possible Faulty gauge?

 

possibly, I bought them all off rainbird, and he's a bit of a dodgy beggar :cry;

 

You could rig up a series of small mirrors to invert the reading.

 

so can anyone answer me if the 5.39v im getting accross the sender is right?

will have another look tomoz and see if i can do anything else with it, before it gets tossed in the bin...

 

Afaik, the send should be based on a negative and not positive volts

 

could well be then, as it was showing a minus lol

 

right, had another look today.

took the sender out again, and took the tube off to see if the float was a magnet, a bit like some senders we use at work, where you can just turn the float round and it will read properly.

anyway, its not like that, there are 2 thin wires that the float passes over with a wiper. so put it back how it was.

tried the custom callibration again, and low and behold, it fooking worked!

what joy, so i put the dash back together and re ran the sender wire throught the conduit...

turned it on again and the cunt was just sat on empty!

so i disconnected the st700sr, boost gauge and the fog light switch as these were all disconnected when it did work, and the fuker was just sat on empty still.

CUNT!

if i put the sender wire to earth, the guage reads full, so what the fuck is going on?!?

also i found that the main seal that seals the black plate on the fuel tank is fucked, hence why the god damn tank leaks! so need a new one of those too!

 

Throw the gauge away & use a stick with knotches on to tell you how much petrol you have .
Seriously I had probs to start with so took the sender out of the tank & hey presto it calibrated, mind you it worked when i put it all back together as well .

 

According to Stack.

If no Sensor is connected, the pointer will move to the empty position indicating an error.

Also check the sensor with a ohm meter & check its within the calibration range that the Stack can cope with.

 

cheers rod, ill see if i can measure it tomoz if i can be arsed to take it out again!

thing that got me was that it DID seem to work, and then didnt

 

is the sender earthed ? (which it needs to be)

 

Does anyone know if there is instuctions for the fuel level gauge on the net.

I have looked on the Stack web site but when i press the download button on the fuel level one it gives instuctions for boost gauge, i have tried for every gauge and non are for fuel level.

Thanks

 

yes, checked that

gav:

http://www.stackltd.com/pdf/manuals_...50-1445-00.pdf

 

Thanks for that mate.
I have the normal version though not the pro control gauge with the buttons.
Will have to email them.

 

what do you need to know mate as i have the instructions for mine handy.

mine sint the pro either, but the basic setup is the same.

red wire is +12v
there are 2 balc wires, doesnt matter which one is connected to earth
purple is the sender wire
white is illumination

the brown and spare black are for setup.

to do a custom setup, hold the brown and black wires together, turn on power, it will then go into setup mode, wait for the pointer to get to 7/8 and release the wires

turn power off, then back on. set empty point by quickly touching the wires, then the guage will sweep tot he full mark.

fill the tank, or turn the sender upside down if its out the tank, but remember to earth it lol. then quickly touch the wire again. it should now be set and read the correct level.

 

What was wrong with the original fuel guage?

 

Thanks for that mate,
Basically i bought the gauge second hand and never got instuctions but need it to work on the standard Sierra level sender

 

do you know what ohm the std sender is?

as if you look at the link, you can set it pre set values. just power up with the wires touching and select the correct one, then power off. job done lol

 

got a pic of the sender
reverse reading could also be which way the float is set on the bottom of the sender and will change which way the arm will change resistance
so if you have the space in the tank try having the float arm coming out the opposite side it is now which will swap which way it will work.

but as stated only wiring will be sensor wire to insulated tab on sender (check no short between this and sender body) and then just make sure sender body is earthed. if sender body is not earthed properly grounding out the sensor wire won't do anything

 

the sender is in a tube, so the float just goes up and down a bit like this



ill triple check the sensor is earthed and that the tab isnt in a bit.

 

ahh yh thats a complete different sensor but still check the earthing.
ideally run a separate earth wire straight to sensor to car body, you won't get a good earth through a alloy tank.

edit to add have you had a multimeter on the sensor to check resistance does actually change when float rises?