Ran Out of Gas

Don't know what might have changed, but the only things in the circuit are the sender and the gauge so you may have a poor ground.  I know - unheard of in a salty-air climate, but'cha-nevah-know, right?  

First, I would remove the electrical connections from the sender and clean them up.  If you look closely at the mounting rim of the sender, one screw should look different from the others and supplies the ground needed for the gauge sender.  Either you'll have a ground wire included in the wires going to the sender and attached to that screw, or the tank will have a ground strap attached somewhere - whichever you have, remove the ground, clean the connector and replace.  I will usually remove that screw, clean it and the surface beneath it, replace the lock washer (I always use a Star washer on that screw for a good bite) and put it back together the same as it was.  Same for the "hot" side lead going back to the gauge - pull it off, clean it up and replace it.

Moving to the gauge, find the lead coming from the sender (I think Wolfgang has posted the connections to the back of the gauge, but they depend on what gauge you have, too).  It will attach to the gauge with a "fast-on" spade connector.  Remove it and clean both sides of the connection and replace it.  Then, find the +12V lead to the gauge and do the same.  If you're really diligent, find the other end of the +12V gauge wire and clean that connection, too, just to be sure.  IIRC, when the tank is "Full" the sender is at it's least resistance.  When "Empty" the sender is at it's most resistance.  If you have a poor ground the gauge will read artificially higher.  

I bet that will cure your lack of gas ills.

Senders are relatively cheap and easy to replace (some bending of the float arm is required) and gauges are not.  

I've never seen a sender float arm take a different bend while inside of the tank, but all the sender is, is an electrical  potentiometer (think of a volume control on a radio) with a wiper (the float arm) wiping across a shaped coil of wire to give you different resistance readings at different tank levels.  If you change the resistance via dirty connections, then the gauge will give you different readings.

Good luck!

Makes sense as I just re-glued some carpet...

If you change the resistance via dirty connections, then the gauge will give you different readings............  Spot on and so often missed.

Bill, I've always thought of my Chinese gas gauge as one of those decorative touches made to look like the real thing, but with no real function - like the little circular depressions in the fiberglass where the real car had access plates for the rear torsion bars.

Sometimes it's fun watching the needle swing back and forth through half its range in time with the car's bouncing up and down over bumps in the road.

But if I want to know when to fill up, I use the little white numbers on this:

120 = Time to start thinking about gas

150 = Better get some gas pretty soon

170 = Are you feelin' lucky, Mitch?

The funny thing is, I drove past three gas stations on the way home. There's a first for everything...

Mitch;

"...like the little circular depressions in the fiberglass where the real car had access plates for the rear torsion bars..."  Is that an option on VS?  I tried to figure a way to do it, but alas , no luck.

...and since you are from norcal, you recognize my 3 dot journalism... the late Herb Caen... RIP Herb.

Art, not sure exactly what you're asking, but the faux access plate is standard issue on the VS. I think I've read it's already molded into the bodies they get from their supplier - who also supplies the same bodies to others, I think (JPS, ??).

If you do have these on a VW pan-based car and were thinking of cutting them out and fabbing up some real cover plates so you could access the torsion bars, don't bother.

Hard to see in this photo, but the 'holes' don't quite line up with the bars, so you couldn't withdraw them through there even if they were opened up.

Mitch, thanks.

Art