Fuel Tank and Fuel Gauge?

[LordVader]

Hi Guys,

I have a question for you all, I got my new Owners Manual and 1980 assembly manual, and found that by all the info I can find the 1980 Corvette has a 23 gallon fuel tank. My question is this when my fuel gauge gets down just below 1/4 tank I can only put around 13 gallons in the tank. do I have bad Gauge, or a Bad sending unit?

I never let the tank go too far below 1/4 tank, I would hate to run out of gas, but seems to me when gauge reads 1/4 it really has around 1/2 tank.

Thanks,
Mike.

 

[bill81vette]

It could be the resistor isn't reading correctly.
I would just leave it alone.

 

[TimAT]

Can you use a stick to "dip" the fuel level? be a sure way to figure out if the tank is 1/4 full. There are 231 cubic inches in a gallon, so measure the tank, figure out how many inches will be in the tank for x gallons.

Be careful you don't get the stick hung in the flapper in the tank.

I have an 80 gallon aux tank in the bed of my pickup- it figured out to 7 gallons per inch.

 

[LordVader]

I was wondering about that same thing today at work, since the filler is right above the tank, and should be a straight shot down. so I just need to get me a good narrow dowel and try that, stat with a full tank, mark where its at full level and go from there. That should give me better idea of how much is left in tank when Gauge reads 1/4.

Mike.