Rising from the dead

dashfixer

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I have an 09 GS and the fuel gauge died about 5 years ago. I have tried various things to either get it working or get rid of the warning triangle with no success.

Yesterday I got on the bike to pop down the shops. Everything was normal to start with. I usually ride with the clock display showing. After about 10 minuets I noticed that the display had changed to 'range' and it had figures next to it! On closer inspection the bottom block was also showing. A few minuets later the triangle had disappeared and the gauge was showing half a tank which was roughly right. The bike was parked at the shops and when I started it up again the gauge was still working. 5 miles down the road it reverted back to not working and hasn't since.

Do I have a ghost strip?

Anyone else had this happen after such a long time?
 
The fuel strip has a heated element one side and a carbon resistive track on the other, it is the carbon track that normally fails.
It is possible for the carbon track to break and make contact once in a while, hence when zapped with a piezo spark generator the spark will jump the break and form a new carbon track.
I have seen this temporary repair last up to 6 months before re-zapping.
 
An update to the earlier thread. This has now happened 4 times since that first occasion and a common factor is rain. Every time it's happened I've been riding in rain, so I think that water is getting into an electrical connection and is shorting out with the right amount of resistance. I understand that the fuel quantity is measured using a changing resistance so you can't just short out the wires and get a full tank indication.

I'm going to try the mod shown on Advrider forum using resistors wired into the fuel strip power supply. I'm not bothered about the fuel gauge showing fuel quantity but I'd really like to get rid of the warning triangle.

I'll post results.
 


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