Gas Gauge

Golson Molson

Seaman Apprentice
Joined
Sep 8, 2013
Messages
34
Just a quick question:

Put the boat in the water today. New boat to me and just completed the head gasket repair. Put $20 in as the gas gauge said 3/4 full and brought it up to full.

Boated for about an 1-1/2hr, boat ran great, kids were tubing and all of a sudden hesitation with eventual stall...long time restart limp back slowly to dock. Uh-oh. Did I do something wrong on the head gasket....went home and checked compression...All good.

Suspicion about gas. Opened gas cap and shook boat. No noise, put wire down in the fill tube as far as possible and pulled it back out and dry. Gauge still reading 3/4 full. Went to the Gas station, threw another $20 into it brought it back (now reading full on the gas gauge), opened up the gas cap and shook the boat, sure enough there is the slosh sound. Ran wire down the filler tube, pulled it back out and sure enough wet.

Boat eventually fired back up on the muffs and seemed to run fine, I will check it in the water under load in 2 days.

Anyway, anyone heard of a gas gauge reading three quarters full when actually empty. Anyway to calibrate the gauge.
 

NHGuy

Captain
Joined
May 21, 2009
Messages
3,631
Re: Gas Gauge

Yup, you can see how they work by looking up a sending unit installation sheet.
And if you can get to the top of the tank you can remove the sending unit to see if the float has some kind of obstruction keeping it from dropping down to indicate empty. If it DOES go all the way down and still indicates wrong just replace it- the sender that is. I think they cost $30 or $40.
 

generator12

Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Jul 9, 2010
Messages
666
Re: Gas Gauge

And to the cost of a new sending unit, I'd add about five bucks for a two-gallon gas can and about seven dollars more for two gallons of gas with some Stabil in it. Strap it to the swim platform if there's no room in the boat.
 

UncleWillie

Captain
Joined
Oct 18, 2011
Messages
3,995
Re: Gas Gauge

...Anyway, anyone heard of a gas gauge reading three quarters full when actually empty. Anyway to calibrate the gauge.

A boats fuel gauge reads whatever if feels like.
FuelTank1.jpg

If you want to fill the the tank, Fill It.
Keep pumping until the pump shuts off, not the gauge reads Full.
 
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