Ford's Infamous fuel gauge

[dfordski]

I've had 9 Fords starting w/ a 63' E-100 and that was the only one that didn't suffer from some form of Fuel gauge dyslexia. But my current 87' F-150 takes the cake. When full, both tanks peg all the way over to the left, well past /F, and when it shows E\, I've got 50-60 miles to go before my girlfriend has to get out and push! I replaced the entire instrument panel w/ one out of a 92' because mine didn't come w/ a trip odometer or tach (I gotta have a tach). No change in the fuel gauge behavior. Still wacked! There's only room for one dyslexic in the family and thats me. (Note: If it matters, 302 c.i. w/ 72k miles)

[alotech]

It's not the instruments, it's the fuel sending unit inside the gas tank that is wacked. The contacts on the unit for fuel measuring are deteriorating over time.

[way2old]

To add to the previous post. When you reach E, there is still close to 5 gallons of gas in the tank. This is to keep you from running out of gas when you are somewhere you are not supposed to be. That is designed to allow you to drive to the station to re-fuel.

[mechhound]

In addition to what way2old said you shouldn't run the gas tank on a fuel injected engine below 1/4 full anyway. The gas surrounds and cools the fuel pump, this prevents early fuel pump failure. I know there are many who will argue this point with me, but I have always followed this rule and never had a fuel pump failure on a fuel injected vehicle.

[way2old]

Good point mechhound. Keeping the pump submerged will prolong the life. It will not keep it from failing, but should take much longer.