Fuel Gauge Sender Unit

I bought a kz1000e2 (1980) that had sat for 10 years. To my surprise, the fuel sender unit isn't working. With the unit out of the tank, I can get it to work once in a while, but it's real spotty. It will go to the 3/4 full mark then instantly start backing down to empty, even without moving the float.

So, I am looking for a new (or used) unit, or directions on how to repair them if possible.

Thanks,
Aaron

is it mechanical or electric?

wireman wrote:

is it mechanical or electric?

Both. It is one of the ones with a float connected to a big potentiometer... Actually, it's just a wire wound resistor and as the slide moves on the coil, it changes the resistance which moves the gauge.

I'm going to try tearing it apart tonight to see if the problem is in the sending unit or not. It might just be a bad connection somewhere... I hope.

I fixed it.

It had a lot of corrosion on it and the float arm was not making good contact with the housing. Some sand paper and liquid wrench made it happy.

I had to try 3 sender units before I found one that worked. I also have a copy of the 1979 Motorcyclist Magazine that tested the shafty and they complained then that the gauge didn't work well... When tank is filled, the gauge would peg and the stay pegged (after riding some) till it basically dropped down very quickly to almost empty making it semi-useless. I find my working gauge works pretty much that way so I reset the trip odometer each time I fill up to keep an eye when to fill up. The tank SEEMS to be huge but only holds a shade over 4 gallons.