I hate's Meeces to Pieces! (Slightly OT)

[john_bud]

My truck's fuel gauge quite working. Conventional wisdom says its the sender. Checking with some experts (includig "workallthetime"), I came to the conclusion that is the failure. Ordered up a unit from ebay (used but good) for about 1/6th the price of new. Pulled the bed of the truck (8 bed bolts- 4 taken out, 4 loosened), 2 wire connections and 3 small screws that hold the fuel inlet. Used the cherry picker (engine hoist) to pull the bed up enough to remove / replace the inlet/return/sender combo chevy uses.


Still don't work. DANG.

I checked the replacement unit 40-250 ohms with no discontinueties. Checked the wires in the plug. No ohms and no volts. Hmmm. Checked the removed sender. 40 to 250 ohms with no discontinueties. Uh-oh. Got advice to have a code checked / reset from Workallthetime. They found a code - above 98% high level. Being set all the time. The service guy was nice enough to print out the service decision tree for me. They also scanned and spent some time at no charge. While we were there, they had to cut a new key and had my son do the button pushing. He thought that was pretty cool.

So, I go home and go thru the tree. It points to a bad wire, bad connector or bad PCM. I had visualed the wire harness from the tank to the engine compartment and it looked good. Pulled the fuse center in the engine compartment thinking that I may find a loose connector.

This is what I found.

That was around 10 am. It's now 1:45 and I just got in from spending more qualtiy time under the hood with solder, shrink wrap, little pieces of wire and electrical tape. I had to set up an umbrella over the tools as the sun made them too hot to hold. The sun also started shrinking the shrink wrap.

Uggg.

And we have 2 cats! Gotta get some barn cats..

jb

 

[kevinj]

My truck's fuel gauge quite working. Conventional wisdom says its the sender. Checking with some experts (includig "workallthetime"), I came to the conclusion that is the failure. Ordered up a unit from ebay (used but good) for about 1/6th the price of new. Pulled the bed of the truck (8 bed bolts- 4 taken out, 4 loosened), 2 wire connections and 3 small screws that hold the fuel inlet. Used the cherry picker (engine hoist) to pull the bed up enough to remove / replace the inlet/return/sender combo chevy uses.


Still don't work. DANG.

I checked the replacement unit 40-250 ohms with no discontinueties. Checked the wires in the plug. No ohms and no volts. Hmmm. Checked the removed sender. 40 to 250 ohms with no discontinueties. Uh-oh. Got advice to have a code checked / reset from Workallthetime. They found a code - above 98% high level. Being set all the time. The service guy was nice enough to print out the service decision tree for me. They also scanned and spent some time at no charge. While we were there, they had to cut a new key and had my son do the button pushing. He thought that was pretty cool.

So, I go home and go thru the tree. It points to a bad wire, bad connector or bad PCM. I had visualed the wire harness from the tank to the engine compartment and it looked good. Pulled the fuse center in the engine compartment thinking that I may find a loose connector.

This is what I found.

That was around 10 am. It's now 1:45 and I just got in from spending more qualtiy time under the hood with solder, shrink wrap, little pieces of wire and electrical tape. I had to set up an umbrella over the tools as the sun made them too hot to hold. The sun also started shrinking the shrink wrap.

Uggg.

And we have 2 cats! Gotta get some barn cats..

jb

I had a similar issue last year and put a bag of mouse poison in the bottom of the fuse center.

 

[dtd24]

Had some mice try to set up camp in my tractor hood last winter. Put my mouse trap in the garage for a few days. His name is OZZY!!! Nothing gets around that cat.

 

[SkunkWerX]

That sucks!

But, sadly i can beat it, about 25 years ago I had a 16hp riding mower catch-on-fire (Yes flames and smoke) since the buggers built their nest near the exhaust manifold.
Mice on the barbie anyone?

Hope it all gets fixed like new.

I wonder if the rodent and deer repellant stuff would help keep them out??

 

[waynokakid]

I had something similar happen on my 300ZX. Chewed thru 2 spark plug wires and one wire from the battery that was hot. Don't know how he kept from frying himself! I put cayenne pepper around the engine compartment. Ain't had any trouble since.

 

[Onthesauk]

They use to nest on top of the battery on my tractor each Winter. Got to the point that I would check it at least once a month. Trapped all of them out of the barn for a year or two and has never been a problem since.

 

[DieselPower]

You think that's bad you should see what a groundhog can do. Back when I worked at a Ford garage I got a job one day for a inop 4X4. It was on a Explorer and it wasn't all that uncomon for them to have problems with their electric actuated motor on the transfer case. Got the truck up on the lift and it looked like a Tazmanian Devil had let loose on the wiring harness. While I was under the truck I kept smelling gas fumes. I checked around a little and found something had almost completly chewed the fuel fill hose and vent hose off. Looked like some rather large teeth marks in the hose so I thought it was probably a rat. About a month later I had another truck in that I was rebuilding the rear differential on. Had to set it out back while I waited for parts to show up. Was standing out back one day smoking a cancer stick and happened to look over at the truck and saw a groundhog jump down from under the rear end. Eye brows raise, what the heck is a grondhog doing under a F450 with a utility body I thought. Well I found out the next day when we pushed it back inside so I could finish the job. He had been under the truck munching on wires and hoses. From the looks of the chomper marks on the hoses I would have to say that was what had happened to the Explorer the month before. So just remember, a groundhog is nothing more than a huge mouse, a very huge mouse. Ever since that day all the fat chubby guys life spans have greatly decreased at my place.

 

[john_bud]

DieselPower, I agree completely with your last statement. I have no love of rodents and their kin. From mouse to tree rat to mole to gopher to groundhog - they can improve the fertility of the soil!

jb

 

[Maine_Polack]

Last year my F-150 pick-me-up sat for a couple of months...early fall. Mice completely plugged my heater duct work.

Then seemed the clutch was slipping. Put in a new clutch the year before so I was quite annoyed. Turned out that mice had filled the bell with stuff. Had to replace the clutch again. I have since put moth balls in strategic areas.

 

[3RRL]

Same problem with rodents who love to nest and chew on plastic in my engine compartment. I tried mothballs and traps and the trap did work once. The trap also caught the tent flap once....that was good.



The mothballs didn't do diddly squat (except no moths). But has really worked ever since is I leave the hood up and the critters just don't feel safe enough in there to nest or start lunch on my wires....to this day I do that without further incident of rodent problems.