Low fuel warning sender?

[Goofle]

I’ve spent a while playing with my my sender - I think it’s now buggered. It wouldn’t work, then had a spell working again, now seems to have given up again.
I was kindly lent a couple of senders, both 4 wire types. I tried improvising their use but failed. I did deduce that there seems to be a circuit in the sender that stabilises (for want of a better word) the output, presumably to stop the lamp flashing on and off when the fuel sloshes around. This circuit does mean that you can’t simply get a believable result if you try testing the device with a multimeter though. I need a new one myself, but the cost seems prohibitive. I’ve been using the trip meter instead, but the speedo cable broke as I left home recently.

[Mr Gazza]

They can be frustrating when they don't work, and hard to establish that they do sometimes, as I have found.

I'm sure you could use mine if you ignored the fuel pump cables, which could be chopped off.
If you have a plug/socket with two cables to the sender check that the warning light comes on when you jump the two cables together. (with the ignition on.) If so then it's just a matter of grafting a plug from one of your defunct senders onto the new one with observation of the polarity. I can tell you which cables are which.

I've just got to check that the sender in my SS works and then the new one will be available if the SS passes.

I'll send to a pm.

[Goofle]

Thanks for the ideas Gaza!
I tried two on the loom last weekend, one of which at least was known to work. I had tested the circuit with a link wire and it works fine. Neither of the two worked on my carb bike, using the two wires to the sender. I improvised the wiring so as to connect it straight in. When this constant rain stops and going to go out and try again - probably draining the tank to fully empty just to test mine..

[Mr Gazza]

Don't forget to follow Luddite's advice and let the sensor warm up in the air for about half a minute to test it.

[Mr Gazza]

Just plugged the new sensor in to the loom again and gave it a bit more time. Sure enough it lit the light after about 30 seconds maybe more. So yes all okay.

Drained the SS tank and it lit it's little light too, so all good there too.

So working new sender unit is available.

[utopia]

So whaddya reckon ? .... "If it ain't broke ........."

[Mr Gazza]

So...... I've almost concluded my experiment, barring a few sums.

I rode merrily on until the light eventually came on at 150 miles. This is why had been thinking that the light didn't work as I had never seen it come on before, having always filled up at a maximum of 120 miles.
With a ready can full of premium in the panniers, I rode on, and on...

She finally sputtered out of juice at 196.3 miles.

I would never have believed I had such a stunning range and believe me this was not an economy run by any means. The tankful has seen all kinds of riding including spankings on big open roads and a few trips into the city too. Significantly there have not been any particularly long runs, mostly sort of 20ish mile hops with no horses spared.

I just need to find what the tank capacity is to work out my MPG over that tankful, Not really much good noting what it takes to fill up as I've emptied the ready can into it and then used some of that.

I reckon I could get over 200 miles out of a tank with a steady wrist. (not likely because I enjoy riding it properly too much.. )

[Mr Gazza]

Well if my manual is to be believed, it states fuel capacity as 16.5 litres inc reserve.

That makes the mpg 54 over that tankful, not surprising given that some of the journeys were only about 4 miles.
I know it will return 68mpg on a spirited run, so I see no reason why I could not go 240 miles on a single fill up. This is way beyond what I had always assumed to be the range of a Monster.