Fuel Gauge Problem
Short answer: Test the gauge by grounding the brown sender wire at the trunk connector — the gauge should swing to empty. Test the sender with a meter on ohms from the trunk connector (red lead to the brown/sender wire going to the tank, black to a good body ground); bump the car and watch it change — roughly 90 ohms full, ~1 ohm empty.
A common failure is the sender’s internal coils breaking with age (they look like a Bic-pen spring around thin cardboard). The sender is pricey: ~$70+ for a replacement (a 350 no-vapor-return unit), or $100+ to have Year One rebuild the original. Think of the sender as a variable resistor and the gauge as an ohm-meter — more ohms = fuller tank.
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Content last modified: June 13, 2026 at 10:06 am
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I’m having problems with my 68,The fuel gauge never went above a half a tank when full of gas, I replaced the sending unit making sure the ground was attached with the tank empty I checked the gauge and it was reading 1/2 below the empty mark?? I then poured in about 6 gallons of gas and checked the gauge again it was now reading 1/4 below empty, Any thoughts?
Thanks