grrrr.. fuel gauge won't work

[nm9stheham]

You are on the right track; check that 12v is reaching the voltage limiter (regulator). The limiter works by turning on and off and sending on-off cycled 12v to the fuel guage and temp guage (and oil pressure guage if you have one). The average of the on-off cycling is 5v (slightly more 'off' than 'on'). So the ticking you see it likely the limiter going on and off; probably the guage, but without a meter to check the on-off cycling of the limiter, you can't be sure it is not a flaky limiter.

If you can get a 6V battery from the local farm or hardware stor, or hook up 3 C or D cells for 4.5V, and hook that in place of the limiter, you can see if the guage is basically working. If working the guage will read a bit higher than normal when fed with 6V, and a bit lower with 4.5v.

 

[64Belvedere]

If I ground the gauge and it goes to full, wouldn't that tell me that the voltage is getting past the limiter? If the printed board was bad, wouldn't that also prevent the gauge from going to full? next step for me is to pull the cluster and check everything on the boards. I know I have an issue with one of the dash lights in the 2nd gauge from the right. It wont light up anymore. Tested the bulb and It's ok. I can drive the car as it is but I want to sort out the little things as I go so I'm just picking at stuff.

 

[bigmanjbmopar]

Sounds like circuit board(s) or bad connectors on them if sender works gauge works maybe something else shorting out the line to the gauge? have you tried things like lights on test fuel gauge etc? I have seen high beam switch short out other lamps etc.

This is too simple an issue to not be a quick fix. Did you look at the wiring diagrams? do they look correct for your car?

 

[nm9stheham]

Grounding the guage will tell you that there is SOME sort of voltage getting to the guage but won't tell you if that voltage is the right 5V level. And a simple grounding test will not tell you if the guage is actually right or whacked out of calibration; it just says that it will pass current and move the needle in some unknown fashion.

So no, just grounding is not doing an adequate test to learn what you want to know by just grounding the guage. (This is an analog circuit, not a digitial on/off circuit.) Either:
1) Use the easter egg troubleshooting method by subsituting the guage cluster and/or the voltage limiter, or
2) Troubleshoot further by applying a close to correct voltage to see if the guage reads right or wrong