Fuel gauge faulty

[67-2door]

Hi.
The fuel gauge in my 1966 minor was working fine when I last used the car two years ago but now I've just got it back on the road it only goes up to half when the tank is filled up. I had the tank out while I was sorting the car out & painted it but as far as I remember I didn't remove the sender.
I haven't tried earthing the sender wire yet to see if the gauge then reads full but I think that's the first step, assuming that's ok I guess the sender needs to come out of the tank, can this be done with the tank fitted to the car and full of fuel or does it need emptying first?
Thanks.
Neil.

[MoggyBlue]

The sender is at the top of the tank and can be removed with tank in place and fuel in tank if possible I would remove the wooden boot floor just to make life easier. If you turn ignition on and it's always going to the same position and has been sat for a while it does sound a bit like a stuck sender unit

[67-2door]

It's not always going to the same position but just doesn't go beyond half. I first put approx. half a tank of fuel in and it went to half & gradually fell back as it should with use to just under a quarter. I then filled it up & it only registered half and as yet hasn't started to drop so I'm guessing it'll start to go down once the level reaches around half again.

[bmcecosse]

I think I would burn off some of that fuel before opening the top panel.....

[67-2door]

For safety's sake I'll wait until I've used half a tank before I remove the sender.
Do you know what the gasket is made of? Is it something I need to buy before taking it off in case it tears or is it something I can make out of cork or thick gasket paper?

[mogbob]

All ways best to have a replacement handy before starting. ESM sell them for 50p Code FUL103 made of cork.
If you've already got gasket material available and a hole puncher...you're in business.
As you will see from the old one , they are reasonably thick but you could always " double up " to get the right thickness.
Bob

[67-2door]

Excellent, thankyou

[Nickol]

This does not apply to you , as your gauge was working before but it is perhaps an interesting anecdote.

The fuel gauge when I bought my Traveller would also only read half way when the tank was full. It soon read empty after a few km, so you never knew where you were. I replaced the gauge with a spare to no avail. Considered the voltage Regulator but this checked out ok.

So reluctantly I checked the Sender unit and it also seemed to work ok when checked with a multimeter. However, it read in reverse which was a clue. Obviously in the past there was a problem and the repairer got a replacement sender from a scrapyard - for a pre '62 model or whatever. I then noticed that the model installed looked different to the one listed for a '68 model.

After purchasing and installing the correct sender, all was well. Lovely feeling!!