twinlks said:
Recently bought a 2001 Grady 208 Adventurer and assumed fuel gauge was blinking because the owner said it was low on fuel. Well I found the in addition to this guy being a cheap *%$# he was lying. Filled the tank and its still blinking. Does anyone think I just need to replace the tank fuel sensor or is their a way to determine if its that or the dash gauge.
Open the access plate at the rear of the tank. You will see the sender . There will be probably two wires attached, one to it's metal rim and one to a lug connected to the sensor. Take a wire and connect that lead (it is purple or pink, I can never remember, and touch the other end to a known good ground. It is important to know that the ground is good. Although the tank is supposed to be grounded, that connection may be bad.
When you connect the sender lead to ground the gauge should read full. If it does, the gauge and most wiring is OK. If it doesn't you will have to find that same color wire at the gauge ( you will probably have to remove the front panel to get to it and try connecting the wire at the gauge to a good ground. If the gauge now reads full, the wire between the helm and the tank is bad.
If it doesn't read full and the wire is good, either the sender is bad or the tank ground/sender ground is bad. Connect a wire from a good ground to the sender ground lug should cause the gauge to read the actual level if the tank ground is bad. If it doesn't, the sender is probably shot.
If you need to change the sender note that if the tank is relatively full, gas will pour out of the sender flange when you start to take the sender off. So run down the fuel level.
There are a tons of posts here on replacing the sender along with recommendation of units.
90% of the time, the sender is bad.
Good luck
