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A few weeks ago half of my cluster decided to give out ( fuel, battery, temp), I decided to just get a whole new cluster and replace everything at once. New cluster goes in and everything works great except the fuel gauge is still out. It has been reading at full which I know is a sign of a bad ground, easy fix. I decide to test the gauge and hook up a loose ground wire to the back of the gauge, plug it into the cluster and turn the key to see if it's fixed.
The fuel gauge has 3 threaded screws on its back that press into their respective clamps in the cluster. If you follow the circuit on the back, the ground should be the rightmost screw when facing the gauge. Immediate fuse blown when power is on and that screw is grounded...
If I ground out the left most screw it causes a steady decline in the fuel gauge until it sits below E, probably because I am grounding the connection before it hits the actual components.
grounding the third screw does nothing that I can tell.
Just want to make sure I am correct on which post is ground so I can continue the process of elimination and fix this issue.
In my experience the fuel gauge is a very temperamental piece of equipment. The first time I changed my fuel pump the sending unit in the tank went out. For no obvious reason mind you.
You should go back to the connector behind the rear seats or in front of the fuel tank that is mounted to the body. You can either tap into a wire (purple) and see if you get an actual resistance reading (above 0 but less than 90). If you do it should rule in or out the sending unit.
If the gauge on the new cluster does the same thing as the old cluster I would test the tank sending unit 1st. Make sure the tank has a good ground. The sending wire should ohm out differently depending on the floats position in the tank. Grounding that wire the gauge should read full, disconnect it and it should read empty
