97 Taurus GL Non-FFV Erratic Fuel Gauge

[UsedtobeSmart]

I have a 1997 GL with 145K on the clock. Recently I noticed that the fuel gauge started dropping to E and the fuel light coming on when I had less than 200 miles on a full tank. Stopping the car and starting it again reset the gas gauge to the proper level, but the lower the gauge got the more often it flopped to E and the idiot light to fill the tank comes on. With a full tank it'll drop to the midrange after a few miles and then go back up, and if I just keep driving it'll usually return to the proper level, but it's really annoying.

I did some looking on here and all I could find was some information for FFVs. I couldn't find the sensor under the dash of my car so I'm assuming it doesn't apply to regular Vulcans. I'd be happy to be wrong, however.

Is there any way to fix this without having to install a new gas tank? I say that because to date the only way I've found to get the sending unit is by buying a new tank and the labor costs associated with installation plus the cost of the tank are currently rather prohibative.

Thanks for the help!

[Scrapper]

it could be your float in gas tank.ok like s-10 when i start it up it might say half tank then when i'm going down the road then it might show 1/4 tank. so i just say the floats bad and i never ran out of gas.so i'd say you may have to drop tank and check it out.now i had that problen took tank off and put new float in it and it was 1994 ford ranger.

[shorod]

In your '97 non-FFV, the fuel sender is part of the fuel pump. You don't need to replace the entire fuel tank. You would need to lower the fuel tank to replace the sender, but you can reuse the tank. There's not module under the dash. The sender is wired to the anti-slosh module in the instrument cluster.

-Rod