TheSamba.com :: View topic

Fri Jun 11, 2010 11:22 am

My fuel guage stops at about three quarters full and has never reached full since I have owned the van. I am close to ordering all of the parts to replace my fuel sender but want to make sure that the problem I am having is not due to the original sender being reinstalled improperly. Does anyone have a pic or can you tell from mine if the sender is installed at the right angle?

Thanks!

Fri Jun 11, 2010 2:14 pm

Yes it looks as it should.
The sender usually goes to the bottom of the gauge if the connection is broken.
Test the wiring and dash gauge before ordering any parts, they are very expensive and may not solve the problem.

dylan

Sun Jun 13, 2010 11:27 am

I jumped the connection and the fuel guage pegged at full. Is there something electronically that could be causing it from getting up to full besides a damaged fuel sender?

Sun Jun 13, 2010 11:50 am

If you've already jumped the connection and guage reads full then there's only the sender which can be the fault.
I have the same fault with Limey but I'm not prepared to pull the sender out as they cost £90+ and it's a horrible job.
Maybe when it gets painted!

MG

Sun Jun 13, 2010 12:14 pm

Hmmm...looking in from the wheel well it looks like somewhat good access and not to terribly dificult. Care to warn me of any troubles ahead?

Sun Jun 13, 2010 2:09 pm

The difficulty is getting the nuts undone from the studs. On all the senders I've had to remove, it's been virtually impossible to get them undone and the studs snap.

The studs are part of the insert in the fuel tank. The insert is a seperate part which can be removed easily and is made up of 2 semi-circular plates with studs pressed in. I removed the original studs and welded stock M6 bolts in to replace them with.

Then it's simply a case of getting it all back together without the insert dropping into the tank when you push the sender into place and start the nuts on each of the studs.

MG

Sun Jun 13, 2010 3:00 pm

Mine unbolted no problem I soaked them with PB blaster for a couple of hours.

Fri Jul 23, 2010 2:50 pm

Alaric - Did you reuse the semi-rings with the studs?

I remember someone on here selling them in stainless not to long ago.

I was putting off this job until I got my hands on a set. I have a new OEM sender which I've been sitting on for a while now.

I did this job on my other syncro and it was an absolute nightmare. The nuts all rounded and I didn't want to dremel them off in such proximity to the fuel. I ended up gnawing them off with snips and wire cutters. Luckily my "good" syncro is not nearly as rusty.

Fri Jul 23, 2010 6:18 pm

What year is your van? A big difficulty lies inside the tank; if you have an early Syncro, the "stud ring" is not split, there's no way to remove it from the tank without cutting through it at least once. If you strip or break studs, you will have to remove the tank anyway to get enough access to get a saw into that hole, and remove the metal debris after you've cut it.

If your external nuts look reasonably useable, (which they do, looking at the pictures) soak them with knock-loose for a few days and go for it. If they are really rusted and 'blooming" rust mushrooms, I'd wait until you have time to take the tank out.

Fri Jul 23, 2010 8:22 pm

Check the second post in this thread. Has some really good info for diagnosing fuel gauge problems.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=339316

My fuel gauge does exactly the same thing yours does, but I've had much bigger fish to fry before tackling this.

Clean and re-attach the ground before doing anything drastic.

Fri Jul 23, 2010 8:30 pm

15 years ago this wanst as bad as dealing with the power steering lines my father tried to do hiself :lol: the worst part i remember was him getting the syphon started and getting a mouth full of gasoline :roll: but being about 13 i wasnt in charge 8) yet :lol:

Sat Jul 24, 2010 1:26 am

On my Syncro the guage didn't work. It passed the guage wiring test by jumping the sender wires. When I took the sender out, it was covered in "crust".
Most flaked off with a little scraping. I used some 600 grit to sand the button and do a light clean on the reostat wires. I put some down tweek in the button arm. After reassymbly, I tested it for variable resistance and had some, so I thought it was close enough. It works perfectly now and I make sure to keep the tank fuller now. At $150 replacement, I didn't think I had much to lose.

[/img]