86 series fuel guage.

[notjustair]

The fuel guage in my 886 doesn't work. It makes me crazy. The needle is clear over to the right and actually moves about half an inch farther when you turn on the key.

My thinking is that the line to the guage has to be grounded. I checked that wire to ground and got full continuity. I found a frayed wire at the connector under the cab but there is continuity at that connector anyway. Am I correct in thinking that with the key off and the wire hooked I should have no continuity to ground? I'd like to narrow it down and not throw parts at it b

 

[Allan in NE]

Yep,

She's grounded somewhere.

Allan

 

[Lpakiz Larry]

Does it show continuity to ground even when the tank sender is unhooked? The job of the tank sender is to provide a variable ground to the gauge. The better the ground, the more the gauge deflects. So, if that wire shows continuity to ground, it would appear you have a short to ground. You could unhook that wire on both ends and run a temporary wire from the gauge to the sender, just to see if that makes the gauge work.
A way to find that dead short might be to hook up an old headlight to power, then use the headlight ground to power up the suspected shorted wire. You would have to have the suspect wire unhooked on both ends. If the short is real good, the headlight will glow nicely. When you find the short, the light will flicker, go dim or go out entirely.
Kind of like using the filiment as a fuse that won't blow, just glows.

 

[gbs]

does the 886 have dual tanks? if so disconnect the gauge wire from both tank sending units turn the ign switch on see if the gauge changes,if it does one or both of the sending units is bad,if it didn't change turn ign off leave the sending units disconnected and disconnect the wire from the gauge going to the fuel tanks turn ign back on,if it changes you have a short in the wire,if no change the gauge is bad