Bloody fuel gauge sender....

Hi - I'll try and keep this as short as possible...

WHen I bought my 110 Deepender, the fuel gauge only read down to half a tank, so I assumed the sender was knackered. Went to Bearmachs and they gave me one that was completely different than what was already in there - I had a zinc'd metal type (rear tank, side fitting for sender), and they gave me a white plastic jobby.

I took it back and insisted on the metal type - tested it before fitting and it worked fine, but had a lot of trouble fitting it - it felt like it kept hitting something like a baffle inside the tank. Now it only read 1.4 of a tank downwards. Tried refitting it, and now only 1/2 tank upwards.

So, I figure that the white plastic one Bearmachs gave me was correct, and the original metal one in the tank was incorrect. So go back and get the plastic one, which has a longer reach on the feed tube and float arm, so guessed this would clear the baffle.

More trouble fitting it as it still kept hitting something insdie the tank but it finally clicked into place and I thought I had it. It showed 1/4 tank and dropped nicely whilst being used, filled up and it only shows max 1/4 tank.

SO...now I'm out of ideas - both senders seem to get stuck on this "baffle" or something inside the tank.

Can anyone shed any light on this? I know people are gonna say use the mileage, but I'm using the Landy as my business vehicle and I really need to know how much fuel I have, and my mpg will range quite a bit as I will sometimes have a heavy load in the back.

Thanks!

Anyone got any ideas??

Take the sender out and test the resistivity of it on a multimeter. If it uniformly reduces in resistance between the arm being up and the arm being down, the fault is elsewhere...or it is catching on something in the tank (try having a feel round in the tank with a length of wire).

If that doesn't show anything untoward, i would suspect the gauge of being faulty - but again take it out and test it using the meter and a small battery - if it's still not definitive, you have narrowed it down to the wiring!

Yes, I've checked the sender against the gauge outside of the tank and it's reading the full sweep fine - there is definately something blocking it inside the tank, but I don't understand why.

This is the supposedly correct sender for my vehicle, and I have tried others and they all suffer the same problem.

Could my tank not be the original one for the vehicle?? The tank isn't damaged at all so the internals have not been altered in any way.