I have a 96 cavalier and Im trying to install my fuel level gauge, I bought a 0-90 ohm gauge and every time I hookup the signal wire, purple wire from the plug that goes into the cluster, the gauge maxes out completly way past full and my tank is not even full.

Any one know what would cause this?

make sure you have it hooked up to the back side that says sender or S. Idk if your using autometer and thats what i use but according to them the 90 ohms was used on 97 and up for GM ...idk you might what to snoop around or ask some one at GM

never mind it said up to 97 so u should be okay ! but might what to check the wiring again. I kno with autometer theres a ground for the sender and the light and ground for ignition...check it over again..check fuses

Checked all the wiring at the gauge. Is there a fuse for the sender? I didnt think there was.

there isnt on autometer...i would trace the wire away from the cluster and try to splice into it. i hooked up my volt meter to the wrong terminal on the back and soon as i put the car on it just went to 18 volts and stayed there ...

try disconnecting the battery and then connect it and hook it back up...i jumped all my gauge wires to the fuses so i didnt have to did through the mess of wires...

Definitely check all the wires to make sure you don't have a short. FYI, 0 ohms is full. 90 is empty. A short to ground could cause this problem. If there was a fuse in the line, you would be reading empty due to the open circuit.

but Im not reading empty. Im reading infinite.

Z24 Speed wrote:but Im not reading empty. Im reading infinite.

Sorry. I said that backwards. With an open circuit, you read full. With a short, you read empty.
I'm still sure that there is no fuse. The sending unit it simply a resistor.

Just to make sure it's not your gauge, I would take a resistor, preferably somewhere around 40-50 ohms, and touch it to the signal wire on the gauge and the ground. The gauge should drop down to 1/4-1/2 tank. If it works, start tracing your wires. Somewhere you have a bad connection. Just out of curiosity, was your factory gauge working right before you disconnected it?

Hard telling. My cluster was shot somehow during the swap and I never put a stocker back in. Before that though yes it did work. But I know the gauge is ok because if I short the signal wire it reads empty. Its just an open circuit though. Is it possible the sender is bad? Or the ground to the sender? I was under the impression the sender was grounded by the tank when it is pushed down and secured to the tank it grounds itself.

Anything is possible, but since it stopped working after the swap, I'm guessing something happened to the wiring. You never know what could have been bumped while in there, even if you didn't actually touch those wires.

having the same problem figure anything out by chance?