starboard fuel guage not registering at all

[Pilot]

They've never been very reliable, but at least worked. However recently now the starboard is not registering at all and shows empty on both the dashboard guage as well as on smartcraft. Is this a fuse or something?

thx

 

[unsalted]

Given the issue is both your gauge and smartcraft I would suspect the fuel sender in the tank has given up the ghost.

 

[saltydogz]

I just replaced both of mine for that reason.

 

[Pilot]

I just replaced both of mine for that reason.

Thx Saltydogz. Did you do it yourself or have a mechanic? What was the cost?

 

[saltydogz]

I had the boat yard do it while it was on the hard this past winter. it was tight down there so the put in two access holes above them (which are both hidden in storage lockers) to be able to get the old ones out and new ones in without have any issues. it was around $600 if I remember.

 

[Hoplite808]

Fuel senders and gauges are a fairly simple circuit. 12v+ goes to the gauge when the ignition is on. Then a wire connects from the other terminal to the gauge to the sender. The other terminal on the sender is 12v-. The sender creates resistance on the ground circuit and the gauge reads that resistance as the fuel level.

To test the sender just disconnect the two wires connected to it and touch them together. If the ignition is on and the gauge suddenly reads full tank when they touch and empty when they don’t it’s a bad sender. Replace the sender and it will work fine once again.

 

[ttmott]

Fuel senders and gauges are a fairly simple circuit. 12v+ goes to the gauge when the ignition is on. Then a wire connects from the other terminal to the gauge to the sender. The other terminal on the sender is 12v-. The sender creates resistance on the ground circuit and the gauge reads that resistance as the fuel level.

To test the sender just disconnect the two wires connected to it and touch them together. If the ignition is on and the gauge suddenly reads full tank when they touch and empty when they don’t it’s a bad sender. Replace the sender and it will work fine once again.

Not on his boat; everything is digital through the Smartcraft system even the gauges. Only the sender in the fuel tank is analog.

 

[Hoplite808]

@ttmott It still works the same way just with more expense. If he were to connect the two sender wires together the gauge should read full, and separated the gauge will read empty. If this doesn't work then test that one of the two sender wires has a good ground connection. If it does than all that extra fancy circuitry will need to be gone through to find the fault.