Fuel Gauge Woe's

It is most likely the sending unit but there is a chance it is in the gage or its calibration but it would not be my first choice here.

----------------- The SnoMan

When I first bought my '99 Z71 it had similar problems. Whenever I started it up it would take about 2 minutes before it would register ANYTHING on the gauge. I figured it would be an easy problem to adjust to: I just remembered how much gas I put in and how much I had driven. However as soon as my fuel pump went out I had my friend (who's a certified mechanic) work on it and when he pulled the fuel pump out he noticed that the sensors on the pump were worn. As soon as he replaced the fuel pump and started it back up the gauge worked absolutely perfectly. No problems since. I don't know if a year makes a difference between your truck and mine (mine is the new body style so there may be some difference) but from my experience, if the gauge starts going bad then it could be that your fuel pump is about to go south. If your fuel pump hasn't been changed in awhile then it may be something to look into. I am not very wise when it comes to vehicles but like I said just from my past experience this COULD be one situation. Hope ya figure something out!

In Christ Alone

The "sensors" were probably the contact fingers attached to the float arm. Or it could have been the contacts in the sending unit on which the fingers ride.

Either way, the key here is that the sender is built in to the fuel pump. By changing the pump, he also changed the sender. The two units work quite independently of each other, though, so a bad sender doesn't necessarily equate to a bad pump or vice versa.

The irony here is that some senders are not independently replaceable, so you MUST replace the fuel pump to replace the sender. This is an imbecilic design concept, imho.

JLarsson