Smartcraft / Fuel Sender advice
Submitted by Muppet on Sat, 2012-02-04 12:53
Guys,
I am running a set of smartcraft gauges and a system monitor, hooked up to a new 2011 Mercruiser 6.2 lt MPI sterndrive.
The fuel gauge is'nt reading correctly and is jumping all over the place and sounding the low fuel alarm. I dont think any of this is related to the new motor.
There is 3/4 of a tank in it at the moment and the system has been calibrated, yet the problem still persists.
I have had the sender unit out this morning. It's all still intact and wiring / ground looks good.
Any advice and does anyone know if the typical, analogue, 2 wire fuel tank sender units are compatible with the Merc Smartcraft systems. (it seems a bit odd to me that smartcraft is all digital, yet analogue senders are used??)
Cheers guys.
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hunterdive
Posts: 363
Date Joined: 24/02/09
I'll be watching this thread
I'll be watching this thread with interest.
I have the same issues with the Smarkcraft fuel guage hooked up to a Merc Optimax outboard. It constanly jumps all over the place and more often than not it reads low fuel. I ended up putting an seperate guage next to it with its own sender/ float set up cause we couldn't trust the digital one
sarcasm0
Posts: 1396
Date Joined: 25/06/09
Sender units
I believe a common problem with these is the Resistance (Ohms) as there are European and American senders and each operate on a different ohm range. So if im reading this right you had a fuel sender and gauge on an old motor setup which worked, swapped to the smartcraft gauge and new motor and now its not working?
Note S model 0-180 ohms.
https://www.whitworths.com.au/main_itemdetail.asp?cat=135&item=34136&intAbsolutePage=1&LinkedItem=34148&search123=fuel%20senders
A model
https://www.whitworths.com.au/main_itemdetail.asp?cat=135&item=34148&intAbsolutePage=1&LinkedItem=34131&search123=fuel%20senders
Fairly common info request/problem in my work when something fails and customer replaces either sender or gauge and the new/old combo is unsuitable.
Edit: Above comments are not related to smartcraft gauges and I have no idea on the compatability of analog senders and digital smartcraft requirements but I would look into the ohms.
Edit 2: Did some googling to find out the requirements for senders but the Mercruiser/Smartcraft websites/documents are so shit I can't be bothered looking anymore, and bad news, other people online have struggled with similar problems to yours. Apparently there are Mercruiser Digital Three Pole sender units available online. I would call them and ask.
Bryan
Muppet
Posts: 408
Date Joined: 23/11/09
Thanks for your work
Bryan,
I had the same smartcraft gauges and sender on the old motor and now I am wondering if it was ever working the way it should have. I have also been on line
And looked at those 3 pole senders. I am a bit cautious about them at the moment because one of the poles is for direct 12volt power. Not to keen on hooking up power to an ignition source! Mercury aren't to helpful, they simply recommend to take it to a dealer. I'll have to see my local mechanic on Monday and see what he can work out.
Cheers
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snappermiles
Posts: 2100
Date Joined: 05/11/10
i had to replace my analog sender
when i put my mercruiser into the boat! pretty sure its digital now
ALL FISHERMEN ARE LIARS EXCEPT YOU AND ME! AND IM NOT SO SURE ABOUT YOU!