Gas gauge don't work.

[SVO58]

My gas gauge for some reason stopped working, I know there is a way to check it. If I remember correctly you have to drop the tank and put a volt meter on the wires. I dropped the tank and there are 2 wires , a white one and a black one. The black one should be a ground wire and the white one is the power wire. My question is what setting do I put the volt meter on and how do I check the range of volts from empty to full. If anyone has the correct way to check the float on the tank please let me know. Does the key have to be on ect.... It sucks not to have a working gas gauge. Any help in this problem would be great, Thanks

[k98dave]

Suggest you check the sending unit in the tank as that is usually what fails. You have to drop the tank down to remove it and using an ohm meter check the resistance as the float moves. It should read between 70 & 80 ohms with the float fully down (empty tank) and moving the float fully up it should have a linear decrease down to 10 ohms (full tank) The later cars (87 & on) have the resistance values reversed which is why later sending units will not work on our cars.

Check this article at Four Eyed Pride sits:
http://www.foureyedpride.com/joom/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=105:83-86-cfiefi-fuel-sender-repair&catid=25:tech-art&Itemid=42