Weird Electrical - Fuel Gauge

[prairieboy]

Hey everyone!

Of course my fuel gauge is not working on my 99 Speedster and just haven't got around to the fuel baffle repair. I narrowed it down to the baffle by doing some electrical tests - so am pretty sure I need to do the repair on the baffle.

But, the other day, we were out on the water. It was a gorgeous evening and the water was like glass so we were ripping it up. The sun started setting so I turned on my nav lights to head back to shore.

They worked fine, but the weirdest thing happened - my fuel gauge suddenly turned on and went right to full. I double checked it again by turning the lights off and back on and sure enough, the gauge went to full level.

I dunno what's going on - kinda seems weird and was hoping someone could point me in the right direction as to where to start looking.

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

Suspect some electric devices may have been added to your boat over the years and wiring changes are causing this. Or, you may have a ground wire lose in a harness connector somewhere.

Check around your battery and see if one of the ground wires was left off or is not making good connection, maybe one is corroded.

In boats, it's not uncommon to experience these types of ghosts with gauges b/c of the long wire lengths and voltage sensitive gauges, simply repairing the baffle might straighten this out due to the voltage sensitive nature of the gauges.

 

[Danosll]

was your tank in fact full ? meaning that the gauge gave you a correct reading or was it like half full and you were still getting an erroneous reading only this time to full.. on my challenger the foam float was no longer buoyant because it became waterlogged with fuel. when i dryed it it worked fine for a little while. but i replaced it with a plastic float http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sea-Doo-Fue...-SPI-SPX-GS-/121279659119?hash=item1c3cd4bc6f problem solved i checked site sponsor they dont seem to carry this part maybe i didnt look in the right place . so have a look

 

[prairieboy]

No the tank wasn't full. Well, the first time I noticed it, it wasn't full, but after a fill up, it reacted the same.

 

[Danosll]

No the tank wasn't full. Well, the first time I noticed it, it wasn't full, but after a fill up, it reacted the same.

Unplug sending unit if it reacts the same like sportster said you most likely have a ground issue like the gauge lights are looking for a better ground

 

[Sportster-2001-951C-Stock]

I have a boat the gauges go haywire in when I use the aftermarket installed 12V power outlet on the helm to power my 100Watt spotlight. The reason is, the harness wire gauge feeding power to the helm (ie: power to gauges) isn't large enough. I really need to run a new, heavier wire up there.