Chad R Posted April 21, 2020 Share Posted April 21, 2020 My fuel gauge bounces when I drive it. When it’s parked it shows proper amount. Do I need to start looking at the sender or the gauge? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted April 22, 2020 Share Posted April 22, 2020 Depends. How bad is the needle bounce? The senders have a float design that is prone to bouncing when the fuel moves, thus your needle movement. The newer cars have a float that is designed to go with the waves and movement of the fuel in the tank. So you will see your needle move around as you drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad R Posted April 22, 2020 Author Share Posted April 22, 2020 1 hour ago, eaglescout526 said: Depends. How bad is the needle bounce? The senders have a float design that is prone to bouncing when the fuel moves, thus your needle movement. The newer cars have a float that is designed to go with the waves and movement of the fuel in the tank. So you will see your needle move around as you drive. It will bounce from 1/2 tank to empty like a tack. Very fast the 86 I had 20 years a go did not do that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eaglescout526 Posted April 22, 2020 Share Posted April 22, 2020 I take it all your grounds and stuff have been cleaned? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chad R Posted April 22, 2020 Author Share Posted April 22, 2020 In the middle of cleaning everything Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Mesa XJ Posted April 22, 2020 Share Posted April 22, 2020 There is a hidden ground in the panel somewhere behind where the spare tire sits I’ve had my fights with these senders, kind of wised I left it alone. These gauges are wonky on a good day. don’t think ethanol did these electronics any favors. The floats and the sender just seem send erroneous signals. Ive swapped out gauges trying to find the problem , actually the original gauge cluster has a peeling printed circuit, so did the early 1987 cluster I put in. Later 87-88-89 cluster seem to have better printed circuits. Checked grounds, added new grounds, cleaned plugs and circuit plugs on the cluster side. Eventually I put a new 1986 sender in the xj because 84-85 senders were not available, plugs were different so I got the proper pig tail and rewired most of the wiring for the fuel sender. basically the original sender was the really bad part of the equation. Gauge levels still likes to move around a little but no where as bad as it was. It was a lot of work and trouble shooting to end up pretty close to where I started. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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