fuel guage problem on 97 chevy

So im at my wits end with this stupid fuel guage.. it used to just jump around a bit when it was below a half a tank.. to all the time, now it is just pointing straight down.. after some tinkering on the guage i thought it was the sending unit.. so i pulled the tank today and yanked the sender.. the potentiometer had some burn marks on it so it thought it was the problem.. so i put a new sender and pump assembly in put it all back together and hooked up the battery and started the truck, the damn thing still didnt move.. anybody got any other ideas???

Bad grounds? At the tank? Dash? Battery to frame and firewall? I have a 99 blazer that does the same thing but havent messed with it, been that way for years. Curious to find out what it is as I always forget to reset trip meter when I fill up.

im going to add some more ground wires and see if that by chances fix anything...

Make sure the one at the tank is good and clean both ends and the screws and metal where they screw on. Its been awhile since I have worked around my tank so I cant remember for sure where the ground strap connects. May not hurt running a new one from the frame to the tank as well.

Make sure you clean them up real well. I always like to hit around the hole with a die grinder to make them real clean.

Good luck and make sure you post up what you find fixes it.

its bolted to a tapped hole in the top of the frame.. i cleaned it up before i attached a new one.. im going to try to add a new ground strap to the frame and body also.. will see what happens

The ground attached to the frame is for the pump...not the sender. Sender ground continues through the harness up to the engine compartment and goes wherever it goes. Just FYI

Richard

Interested to see what you find, because I'm having the same problem. Keep us posted.

DZL1.

thanks for the info richard.. guess its time to start chasing wires and verifying grounds... ill let y'all know what i find out...

so after some playing around i think it may be my gauge itself... as for the grounds it cant be the problem as all the gauges share a common ground and common power.. i took it apart and manually reset the needle and now it just sits at 1/4" below Empty... i can flick it while the key is on and it stays put.. if i turn the key off and move the needle, then turn the key back on it goes back to 1/4" below empty... So im getting lost... can these gauge panels be rebuilt?? ....................... unless the sender wire has a short in it between the tank and gauge... thats all i can think of... any other ideas??

I honestly haven't seen one of these gauges go bad yet but that doesn't mean it's impossible.

Easy enough to just swap another cluster in there...or...the gauge itself is removable, all that holds it in are some studs that make contact in the gauge housing. Problem is I think you have to peel back the gauge face decal to get the gauge out, which would probably ruin the decal. Not 100% sure on that as I haven't removed gauges from those, that's just how the construction looks to me as I've taken them apart for other reasons.

Also keep in mind these gauges don't have a fixed "zero" position so once you pull the needles off it's difficult to get them back in the correct position unless you have a known measuring point to work from.

Richard