my 97 model magna fuel gauge never moves off full.
does anyone know if it would be the sender or the cluster?

Mines does the same thing, it starts out at almost full then as I run the car more it quickly dips to half then down. As soon as I stop the car, it starts going back up very slowly.

The best thing to check would be the sender. With my luck mine is wired backwards.

The fuel gauge sender is simply an ampmeter. The sender unit is a variable resistor. When the tank is full, the resistance is low - the current in the circuit is high and the needle goes to full scale. When it is empty, the resistance is high- current is low.

If you have a full reading all the time, it probably means that you have a short circuit somewhere, and the gauge thinks it is the sender which is low resistance. If the gauge stays in full for a while and then crashes, it is probably the sender unit sticking.

Then again, if you have a full reading all the time, it could be the sender unit stuck on full. One way to check it is to remove the wire from the sneder unit and see if the gauge goes to zero (empty). If it does, it is your sender.

cool. thanks for the replys. i will poke around with a multi meter and see if i can find the problem. mine never moves from full at all so short curcuit or jammed sender could be the issue

is the fuel gauge suppose to return to empty with the ignition off?
i pulled sender out and it looks burntout along where the float contacts so im assuming its that.
i removed cluster tho and all other guages spring back down but fuel guage is firm (no return spring) is this normal. i have another cluster here and its the same

The guage will stay at its last position by design

With the fuel sender unplugged check at the cluster end to see if there is a short in the wiring

The guage will stay at its last position by design



My TL goes to zero with ignition off.....did they change the design?

since i fiddled with the sender it has dropped to half tank but the tank is close to full so im leaning towards sender being faulty. which wires at the cluster are for the fuel guage?

Has anyone had the opposite problem, where the guage drops to empty even on a full tank? my fuel guage reads full for about a minute when I fill it up, then winds down to empty after another few minutes...

"Has anyone had the opposite problem, where the guage drops to empty even on a full tank? my fuel guage reads full for about a minute when I fill it up, then winds down to empty after another few minutes... "

This sounds like you have a lousy contact somewhere in the fuel gauge circuit. There is some extra resistance somewhere. After you fill it up, it works fine for a while until the losuy connection heats up and increases resistance. Then the current in the fule gauge circuit drops off, giving you a reading of "E". Check the connections to the sender unit and also where the printed circuit board gets is signal. I bet it is in the PC board. Nasty job.