Vitara, fuel gauge not working. Help please

[reynard]

I have a 1995 Vitara 3 door, no back windows, apart from rear door.
My fuel gauge just stopped about 6 months ago, I tend to set the trip meter whenever I fill up, gives me an idea of roughly how much miles I have left before running out of fuel. I have decided to keep the Vitara for another couple of years therefore I decided to have a look at the problem in hand. I diconected the connection from the sender to the main harness, just behind the fuel tank, alas I tested for power using a 12v bulb, nothing, I am at a loss as to how this may be, is there some other electrical control box at the front of the vehicle, or could it be a bad fuel display on the dash.
I would be grateful for any help, Thankyou in advance.

Cheers

[jtgh]

of course you checked all fuses?

your gas gage doesnt work.

is it stuck low or high or ?
does it move at all?

are there any other things electrical that do not function.?
i have a schematic here of a 96 vitara.
it show sender having 2 connections.
1 is the wiper and this reostat wiper goes directly to
the Fuel pump 12 feed ( makes sense really)
the other lead goes directly to the instrument cluster.
leave all connected ! AND ,
you could put a volt meter on output lead of the reostat, and monitor the voltage , full tank , empty tank.
if it varies ,then the cluster is bad or the wire between the two is open or grounded.

whats in the cluster is anyones guess.
not shown on fsm dwg's. just a black box.

[jtgh]

of course you checked all fuses?
each year is different.

some vitara's get 12vdc from fuel pump. 96 europe.
others 96 the Fuel tank reostat is grounded and
so the power comes from the ECU.
eg:
pin, 1 black = ground
pin 2 , yell/red goes to ECU. ( not on yours only 96 )

But yours is different.
on yours , it varies a ground signal to the Instrument cluster.
The cluster gage, sits across a resistor and as current increases, the gage would read higher.

could be cluster resistor blown out, or wires between the two.
cluster >>>> sender .

the circuit is very simple.
on 96s the ECU measure gas level and then swings a
voltmeter that is scaled in GAS LEVEL units.
most cars do this now. but not yours.
yours is the old fashion way of doing it ,
it is a current device.

I suspect of you cant read 12v coming from the Cluster to the sender
that the circuit is OPEN. Upstream.

[reynard]

Hi.
Thanks for your replies.

Yes I have checked the fuses, every other electrical item is working.

My Vitara is a 95 that was first registered in the last days of December, so could be the same as a 1996.

My sender unit has the black and the yellow/red wires which go into the harness, not coming from the sender unit.

My gauge sits at empty, never has moved or twitched, was working one day then not the next, I did notice when it was working that it gives a reading even when the keys are not in the egnition.

I dont have enough knowledge of electrical testing to further investigate the wires.

I hope this gives you some help.

Thanks for for your genorous time.

[jtgh]

sometimes pulling cluster, reseating all conn.s fixes this.
what screws to pull is a mystery as each year is different.