Fuel Gauge Fault

[Graeme]

My fuel gauge constantly reads well over maximum, it goes up when you turn the ignition and the needle goes as far as it can until you turn the ignition off. I've changed the gauge head in the clocks but its still does it. Does this only leave the float in the tank or is there anything else that can fail, it did work occasionally but now doesn't work at all. I have heard of this a few times but can't remember how people have cured it

Any help will be much appreciated, thanks for looking
Graeme

[mowgli]

it has a dead short somewhere, either in the sender or the wiring, which runs under the floor matting

[Graeme]

Does that mean to is grounding out somewhere in the circuit or does it mean it has gone open circuit somewhere?

[mowgli]

well, try taking the spade connector off the sender for a start, then see what the gauge does. if it stays on the E, then it is the sender, but if it stays high, then i guess it is in the wiring.

if it is open circuit, then the gauge shouldn't read anything.
if it has grounded, then it should read high.

[AlexW]

Its the gauge as far as everyone has worked out, i think me, vaughan and some others have tried many gauges and only found one that works.

I tried about 5 before i found a working one.

[Graeme]

Well I've had all the wiring out the passenger side tracing the earth feed to the sender, the only earth point I can find is to the rear panel where the number plate light wiring passes through, cleaned up and refitted the cables now the fuel gauge is working again but my rear wiper is on constantly but I can live without that as my new tailgate has no wiper so I might as well get used to it, happy days

[Guderian]

I think the rear wiper runs from a relay, so for a quick fix if you can find that you can 'pull the plug' on it so to speak.