Funny story, but partially OT(or completetly, depending on your OT tolerance). I worked with an old guy years ago, his biggest contribution around the break table seemed to focus on the gas mileage he got with his car, good mileage or bad, that seemed to be all he could talk about, so one day a couple of guys got a little tired of the same old story and decided to F@#$k with him. Once every few days; these guys would take turns adding a little gas to his gas tank after he came into the building in the morning. He would start his routine with how he just couldn't understand how out of the blue his car started getting "really great" gas mileage. Week after week this went on(with crazy exagerations) about not having to put gas in his car for weeks. After a while we just couldn't stand it any more and finally broke the news to him. He never sat at our break table again.
that was an episode of Gomer Pyle USMC. if I remember right they were doing it to Sargent Carter and he had a 60 Dodge that got crushed by something falling off a crane in the end.
Nope. It always works perfect until you install it. One of the fundamental principles of the universe.
Yes real time and after the fact. Shazaaaaam. Or you could duct tape your smart phone back there and periscope it.
We did that to a guy with a German diesel import in the late 70's. He was up to about 100 mpg and was telling everyone about his good fortune, especially his friends at the dealership. Most thought he was crazy. After the new wore off with us, we began siphoning diesel fuel out of his car. He could not figure out how he could gradually go from 100 mpg to about 12 mpg. He blamed it on bad fuel. We never told him!
Whoever did the tank install in my 37 did that, but the access hole was cut 1/2" off center, so you could see the top of the sender, but you couldn't actually remove it. I fixed that.
Gauge in my shoebox has been working fine, gets to 1/4 and needs 12 gallons.. I tried to make this just for future, something wrong with my ability although I did set up the gauge in my car 41 years ago...! ..http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/...-will-work-with-my-dumb-gauge-thingie.862020/
I tried to come up with a silly answer for your silly question. But this gas gauge **** is serious! On my 1955 Chevy wagon I've tinkered and replaced two or three sending units and gauges. Still shows 1/4 tank when empty. I've bent the float wire every which way and it still shows 1/4 tank even at empty. You have to move the rear end to lower the tank. So it's been showing 1/4 tank after I use 3/4 for years. I just fill it and guess by looking at the odometer. My Model T on the other hand was always right with the sender. Or does a stick poked in the tank count?
In a situation like this, I'd test the gauge by connecting the sender wire to ground. If it shows 1/4 tank, then the gauge itself is reading wrong. You might be able to bend the needle to get it where it belongs, or else find a good used gauge to replace it (lots of guys get rid of the stock gauges, they're not hard to find). If the gauge is not the problem, then it might just have too much resistance in the wiring between the sender and the gauge. Make sure the sender is grounded, and make sure there are no bad connections along the wiring path.
Its the reason that people like us have to just fix the damned gauge or carry a can of gas. We don't know what one is, don't want to know, and even if we did that wouldn't work either.
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