VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 29 Fuel Gauge

Sometimes the external gas gauge on my 29 will still indicate EMPTY although I just filled the tank. After driving a few miles, and the fuel has sloshed around some, the gauge will finally read FULL. I have seen this happen on another 29 too. The gauge will sometimes also stick on EMPTY when the fuel level is between ¼ and 1/8 of a tank. The float does not touch the bottom of the tank. Experimenting with reforming the float arm, I found that the float needs to be almost 15 degrees off of straight down for the buoyancy of the float to move the gauge off of EMPTY. Of course, with this adjustment the gauge no longer reads the correct fuel level. Is this a common problem for 29 fuel gauges? Is there a fix?

It is a common problem. My '28 Coupe does the same thing.

Same with my 1930 Coupe. I use the trip meter, when it reads 60 miles I fill up.

Unlike the 1929 gas gauge, which was a manual gauge on the gas thank, the 1930 models used an electrical sending unit in the gas thank (this was the first year) for the gasoline gauge that was on the instrument panel. The 1930 sending unit was of the double float type and sometimes the float arm would hang up due to corrosion.

Thanks for your responses. If I ever figure out a fix, I will post it.