Gas Gauge No Work

[John Pasinski]

'86 S10 V6 carbureted.
Gas gauge shows nothing at any level. I was told this is a common problem with these trucks.
Any suggestions on what it may be, or how to begin diagnostics.
Also; the sticker says 10* for timing. Can I advance further for better performance & power?
Thanks................

[b-mac]

Don't know if you got your answer on this from a couple months ago.

Years ago my gas gauge on my '97 Sonoma started working sometimes and not others. Dad and I pulled the bed and pulled the fuel pump. The sender for the fuel level is what I would describe as a Japanese fan looking thing made out of copper. The float arm connects to this using a flat thin piece of copper with tiny little fingers on it. The fingers ride along the fan, and depending how high the float is in the tank, sends a signal to the gas gauge in the dash.
That thin piece of copper had lost tension over time, and was only intermittantly bumping against the "Japanese fan". We bent the fingers back down against the fan thing and it started working properly again. That bought me a few years, but it lost tension again over time.

New pump (including the sender) was like $280 at the time, so I think it was worth the effort.