Fuel Gauge Ground...where is it?

[rs899]

A couple of weeks ago the fuel gauge in my '91 Jetta decided to work intermittently (better when hot in the car), and then finally quit.  My temp gauge works fine.

I took removed/inspected tank sender (when I deleted the water separator) and didn't see anything obviously wrong (though I didn't test resistance, it looked good).

So I think it's a bad ground and I have seen some discussion of this happening...but where is it grounded?

Rick

[mystery3]

I'd love if there were a list of all the grounds one could reference when going through a car or troubleshooting electrical gremlins. The bently diagrams aren't that helpful to me as it tells me what the circuits are but not always where on the vehicle.

[rs899]

I must confess that I don't have a Bentley for the Jetta.  I do have one for the Caddy and consult the online one at http://www.dubscene.net/eva2/index.html (don't know why they aren't being sued...) but that one doesn't have wiring.  I have a totally useless Chilton's that has wiring, but skips the fuel gauge...useless.

I own 11 cars- I don't think I have room for another 3" service manual on my shelf....

Anyway...the gauge worked briefly again this morning.  I assume the ground is at the fusebox? There are only 2 wires going to the sender and that measures resistance so....

Rick

[Vincent Waldon]

Pretty sure the gauge is grounded as part of the cluster... and the cluster has a couple of grounds iirc but they all lead to a "star ground"... a bronze disk on the driver's side near his knees under the dash with about 15 brown wires leading to it.

I'm also pretty sure the fuel gauge and temp gauge share the same ground... since they share the same voltage stabalizer... so it's perhaps more likely the issue is a circuit board problem, a problem with the wiring between the sensor and the cluster, or with the gauge itself.