fluctuating gas gauge

[66427biscayne]

2000 chevy 3500 pickup, fuel gauge pretty much reads whatever it wants lately. every now and then it seems accurate and than it starts slowly creeping in either direction. i am going to check the sending unit ground as soon as the weather gets a bit warmer, its almost at zero degrees in good old wisconsin as we type. any help would be appreciated.

joel

[kcb37]

As you are already thinking I would check your ground.
Other then that it is most likey your guage.
Now another question for everyone else, when did these start to have the problems with the clusters?
Could be that too. I just don't know when they started to have problems with the clusters.

[89ChevSS]

i heard with chevy's that the gas gauge being goffy is the first sign that your fuel pump is going cause the sending unit is not working properlly... i heard this from my brother who is a good mechanic!! but i could be wrong...

[kcb37]

I won't disagree, but althgouh some of them are one part replacement, (unless I am wrong) the pump should have nothing to do with the sending unit. Different circuts. (should be atleast)

[2500ak]

Come to think of it, mine used to do that but hasn't since I had the pump replaced.

[kcb37]

Was it just the pump or a pump/sending unit?

[2500ak]

It started way before the pump went. Every so often it would jump around, sometimes coming to rest on empty until I hit the door panel with my knee. It would rock the truck and it would start working again for some reason. Started getting more frequent then finally the pump gave up on me.

[kcb37]

Sounds like your was just the sending unit.
Was it all one piece? (pump/sending unit)

[Hotwheelz]

it's just the sending unit. pump has nothing to do with it.

[2500ak]

Not sure, it was under warranty and I had to get back up to college, didn't have time to mess with it myself.

[kcb37]

Hotwheelz
I know the sending unit has nothing to do with the pump, what I am trying to get at is, can you get just a pump or do you have to get both?
That would make sense in 2500ak's case.
I don't know if you can get them separate or not.

[DarkCharisma]

My '00 does this too, will sit on full for 150mi then go down to right above half, it's pretty accurate from there.

[00_chevy_2500]

I have a 2000 obs chevy 2500 gas. I did mine about 2yrs ago.(it was one piece) I was told the 98-01 obs trucks all have the updated pump. That means the pump and the sending unit are both together.

[Hotwheelz]

i THINK they are two pieces, reason being is, the dealership replaced my sending unit when i bought the truck b/c it was bad. (and i was not buying a truck with a non working gas gauge). well the pump went out about 6 months later. I'm thinking that if it was all one piece on my truck then the pump wouldn't have gone out so soon.

[masintenn]

They come as either a pump or pump and assembly. I don't know why anybody would bother taking apart a years old crappy plastic assembly to replace the pump.

I've had several fuel pumps in my truck and the AC Delco gives the best gauge reading.

[montessman1]

97 and older you can get the individual parts, after that you have to buy the whole module, i also agree whth why yould you not do it allif you have it out, especially since these pumps dont last anyway, and dont use anything but ac delco, the rest are junk

[montessman1]

also to add to my last post 97-2000 old body style gage clusters are pieces of sh@t also many problems with fuel and oil gages too