well, its story time on this car...about this gas gauge...i feel pretty dumb about it, but it was a learning process!!
everything (so far) is working on the dakota dash. so far, oil pressure, shift indicator volts. cant really tell about temp yet because i dont have any exhaust or radiator hoses yet so we just the car run for about 15 seconds. need to run transmission lines because its leaking when the car is on. everything engine wise is running off the dakota BIM 01-2 module (i think thats the number) so, temp, and speed etc should work when the time comes. but about this gas gauge.
dakota instructions said to run the ground from the sender unit straight to the dakota box. done. run the sender signal wire straight from sender to dakota box, done. go in dakota and select the ohm range, 0-90. done. put 6-7 gallons of gas in an 18 gallon tank. and the gauge is reading empty. 0 ohm.
called dakota they walked me thru some things but didnt resolve. called a buddy of mine and he suggested i try a different sender. so i have the original gas tank from the car with sender, its been in my backyard for about 2.5yrs in the rain and everything else. i go dig it out. hook up the 2 wires from dakota box to this busted up sender, and put it in a bucket of water, and the gauge on the dash is moving!!
so thats telling me the problem is the sender. could a brand new sender be bad? sure......so..i called tanks inc to see what they can do for me, and the guy said, at 6 gallons, the sender is barely floating. i said, thats 1/3 of the tank capacity? he suggested testing the sender with the ohm meter. i did and it was reading .08 ohm. not zero...so, the sender is good?....he suggested i put more gas...so, i put another 4.5 gallons for a total of 10 gallons. in an 18 gallon tank. i had the ohm meter hooked up while im pouring gas and the numbers are climbing. so then i let car off the jack because the job is done, and the gauge starts going back to E. it doesnt get to E but its reading 05 on the dakota. almost E.
so i put 4.5 more gallons of gas for a total of about 14-15 gallons of gas in an 18 gallon tank and now the gauge reads 3/4 tank.
so to sum it up. all the wiring was correct. just need to put more gas lol. man i feel dumb ....but you would think that 6 gallons in an 18 gallon tank would read atleast 1/4 tank of gas?...
tanks inc told me with this tank, and this sender. there is 1/4 inch of space between sender and tank floor. and with a wide tank, thats a couple gallons of gas right there. he said the tank will have about 5 gallons of reserve after the gauge reads empty... i told them they should put in the instructions to be sure to put about 14 gallons of gas in a dry tank to avoid 2 days of wire chasing and frustrations.
rant over.