my 73 duster 340 gas gauge is reading screwy. full tank , it reads full. the needle goes to empty fairly quick. a progressive drop , but after maybe 50 to 70 miles of driving. I see E, go fill up and after about 8 gallons of fuel the gauge goes to full. 16 gallon tank I believe. temp gauge works. some guys say its a grounding problem, but I am leaning towards a bad sending unit, because the gauge works, just not the right readout, the tank and unit are not that old. I just don,t know if the previuos owner put one of the cheapie plastic float deal in. any info would help, thanks

 

The sender design is baisicly a rheostat, and the gauge's needle is attached to a thin metal wire that bends depending on the resistance offered by the sender. If the gauge is erratic, I would investigate the sender. The "spring" portion on the sender is probably corroded in a few spots?

 

yea I am thinking sender as the gauge needle does not move around , it just goes from full to empty after about 60 miles or so-- and I am pretty sure there is still 8 gallons in the tank. any one know where I can get close to a mopar oem unit or who makes the best repop unit with a brass float? I would rather it work correctly and pay whatever more than the junk ones I see on ebay also the tank and sender I know are not very old, they were installed by the previous owner. the tank looks brand new but not sure what year it was put in

 

Year One. I've bought several from them.

 

mr 4 speed, i checked out year one and there prices seem high? i mean are they that much better? i believe you get what you pay for, just i see similar units on ebay for a lot less---i know the plastic float ones are junk and brass is better. are year one units made in n. America? thanks for any info

 

I suppose you could just buy a brass float and a cheap sender and make it work, but for my money:effort ratio I only want to drop the tank once. You'll have to contact Year One to see where your sender is made, but you'd hope for the extra coin it would be domestic right? Also wouldn't be a bad idea to inspect/replace the grounding jumper while you're at it.