Fuel gauge stepper motor?

[Cajun Jamie]

Gauge pegged to 4 oclock, then 6 and then 9. I ordered a stepper motor thinking that's a cheap and easy place to start. Anything else I can check?

 

[SnowDrifter]

I don't think a faulty sending unit would cause that behavior. You should be alright there. Verify with a scan tool if you have the means.

It's possible you could have a bad cluster but I think that would be putting the cart before the horse, so to speak, given that stepper motor failures are common


Replacement is pretty straight forward. It's solder off solder on. Just make sure that when you pull the cluster cover off, you rotate all the needles as far as they go counter clockwise and mark the position with some tape and a sharpie so you can put them back in their original position.

Depending on what failed with the fuel gauge, you might need to top the tank up, plug the cluster in, turn ignition on, then manually set the needle to full. Not sure if the stop on it broke or if it's an encoder error.

 

[Cajun Jamie]

I don't think a faulty sending unit would cause that behavior. You should be alright there. Verify with a scan tool if you have the means.

It's possible you could have a bad cluster but I think that would be putting the cart before the horse, so to speak, given that stepper motor failures are common


Replacement is pretty straight forward. It's solder off solder on. Just make sure that when you pull the cluster cover off, you rotate all the needles as far as they go counter clockwise and mark the position with some tape and a sharpie so you can put them back in their original position.

Depending on what failed with the fuel gauge, you might need to top the tank up, plug the cluster in, turn ignition on, then manually set the needle to full. Not sure if the stop on it broke or if it's an encoder error.

Thank you sir. I happen to have a full tank, just filled her up. Good points on the tape, I found that DIY video and also picked up a solder remover tool. Hoping just the one stepper motor, but think I may order a few spares in case I am on a road trip and another one fails. Stepper motor arrives today so I hope to know soon.

 

[Cajun Jamie]

Installed the stepper motor. $7 on Amazon. All seems good again. Ordered 2 more to keep as spares. Thanks!

 

[Merc1973]

I like how you marked the pointer location on the gauge. Wish I would have done that before when I had to resolder my PRND led resistors. My Speedo is a little off but at least it keeps from speeding too much now, lol.

 

[Cajun Jamie]

I like how you marked the pointer location on the gauge. Wish I would have done that before when I had to resolder my PRND led resistors. My Speedo is a little off but at least it keeps from speeding too much now, lol.

I picked that up from a video I watched. The job went well, I replaced a bad stepper motor and only managed to break one backlight bulb. I was not aware until I installed it and the coolant temp gauge was dim. I looked around and I likely need to replace a few bulbs. I need a better solder remover than what I have. I pulled the air condition control panel to replace the bulbs. I ended up pulling the glass and leaving behind two pins in the holes, stuck. I'm not trying again until I upgrade my soldering tools.

 

[05Single]

Nice work. Link to stepper motor please

 

[Cajun Jamie]

Nice work. Link to stepper motor please

I installed this and then went back and ordered 2 more for spares.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KWRHVM6/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1