Pluggers by Rick McKee for June 30, 2024

If you have ever had to change out the sending unit in the tank, you’ll understand why it’s much easier to just play it safe.

I have had to drive work trucks like that.Adventure!

Good one !

An old Chevy pick-up, 1950? Oil in the crankcase was the driving range limiter. I recall that the in-line 6 cylinder Chevrolet engine had a splash oil system.

Funny theeng liquid fuel is called gas in Amreeka.

been there, done that, 49 ford

Wonder how accurate the energy gauges are in the Electric vehicles ;-)

Wait, my odometer is broken too!

I bought an old Ford when I lived in California some 50 years ago, and neither the gas gauge nor the speedometer/odometer worked. I didn’t know how much gas I had in the tank or how far I’d driven. The speedometer cable was easy to fix, because it was only loose. But soon after that, I must have hit something sharp that caused a tiny leak in the bottom of the gas tank, so I could only guess how much gas I had left. A little liquid steel took care of the leak. I drove the car for a couple years after fixing that, including a trip to visit my brother near Denver and several other trips visiting some of the national parks in California. The car finally died, conveniently in a BART station parking lot in the East Bay, and I used the public transportation to get to my home two blocks from the ocean in San Francisco. What happened to the car after that I have no idea.

You learn over time how far you can drive on a half tank of gas. The other half covers your butt when you miss it by a bit.

I can relate. The gas gauge on my first car was broken & always registered a tank and a half.

Better safe than sorry.

Every week I fill up. Keeps the vehicle running, and it doesn’t cost as much if you wait until you go down to a quarter. And if you wait until it goes closer to E, then you’re making the fuel pump work harder and shortening it’s life.

well, since it always needs it, why not??

Before I married Mr. Rice, I dated a police officer. I drove an old Chevy that didn’t have a reverse gear, the speedometer cable had broken*, and the gas gauge was a bit iffy. Officer Beau wanted to know who I had bribed to get it on the road.

*Did anybody else have a car in the late 50s, early 60s with a speedometer that would scream and make weird noises, and sail back and forth across the dial in the winter, until the car warmed up. My car did that for several years and then finally just died completely.

The car always need gas. . . .

Back in the 80’s my dad and I shared a 65 Ford Galaxy. Our gas gauge was a freebee pocket calendar and pen that rode on the passenger seat. Log in the mileage at fill up and gauge your gas from that.

My Dad always kept his gas tank ‘topped off’… he grew up poor on a family farm.

Wouldn’t it be cheaper to just get the gas gauge fixed? It may cost some bucks up front, but that’s better than running out of gas in the middle of nowhere or paying many times that amount over time continually topping it off. I guess I’m a bad Plugger.

Voltmeters and amperage integrators need calibration maintenance.

I used to do this with my old truck.

The early VW Beetles did not have a gas gauge. They had a foot-operated lever near the clutch peddle that gave you access to a few more gallons of gas to find a gas station. On the heavily-used one I bought as my first car, that reserve switch did not work. I ended up carrying a one-gallon can of gas to deal with miscalculations and had a gadget that showed me the odometer reading at the last fill-up to remind me when to look for a gas station.

Plugger has a backup, set the alarm on his Casio wrist watch.

My analogue gauge still works … for now … ;)

I would be lucky to get 250 miles on my truck. At around 12mpg adds up to a fill up once a week.

Or the gas tank has a pinhole rusted through at the pinchwelded seam and anything more than 5 gallons leaks out.