How to get gauge working??

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Bluebell

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This will be long but im going present what ive found and hope someone can fill in the pieces im missing.

I have a 97 cheyanne. Originally a 4.3, previous owner swapped in a vortec 5.7. It ran fine, everything worked for couple years as it should,. I recently put 5.3 in and combined harnesses. Everything works but the fuel gauge but hang in there, this led to my finding things that don't make sense.

The wiring all looks original, so whomever did the swap, to 5.7, seem do it right. All wiring looks OE. I read 97 used a buffer module for the fuel gauge. So that has me thinking the obs harness and pcm shoukd be 96-97.

But in trying to figure out the fuel gauge issue, i began finding things that dont mesh, with the information i used to do the LS swap.

I used lt1swap for the obs pinouts to determine what I keep and remove.
Strangely enough, I ended up with three green wires, all marked unused on the pinout list, that turn out to go to the ac monetary switches. That doesn't bother me, as I've bypassed them to keep wiring simple.

The confusion arose, when I wanted figure out the fuel gauge, it's pegged past full nearly to 3 o'clock position. Which shoukd indicate ground issue.

So Following wire hatness from fuel pump/frame rail to a square 4 pin connector under the brake booster. It has 4 wires, Black/white goes to ground. Gray has power, green wire, goes nowhere, it went to obs pcm but under the pinout list. It shows that pin as unused. Then there's a purple/white wire. This wire goes to the buffer module behind glove box. At the buffer module, there's 3 purple/white wires. One, is the wire from the square firewall connector, going into the buffer module. Second wire went to obs pcm but based on pinout list, is unused. The third is the output, and this wire goes to the abs module, that seems odd.

Now bare in mind, all wiring looks untouched, so this is how it apparently was OE. But I can't find any diagrams explaining why this is so. It conflicts with what I'm finding. I would have thought, this purple/white wire would go to the c100 connector but no, abs module.

This is where things get stranger. I figured a fuel gauge wire would go to the c100 connector, id find it then back track. . So I looked it up, sure enough, fuel gauge gas C-2, I went to C-2, theres supposed be a purple wire for the fuel gauge. There's nothing there, just a factory rubber plug.

No other pinouts on the c100 indicate anything to do with the fuel gauge.

So that's a puzzler, even more confusing, as before I pulled the 5.7 and harness out, the gauge worked. Everything looks OEM, so I've no idea how the gauge was wired to work or how it went through the firewall or why all of a sudden it doesn't work. Of all things, whether or not fuel gauge worked, wasn't on my radar, doing the swap and its turned to be the only hangup.

I'd be fine bypassing the buffer. I did disconnect all wires at the buffer module and join the in/out purple/white wires but it didn't get it working. So I've since put it back to stock.

There's no identifying or apparent markings on the obs pcm. It's black. So my assumption was it was 96-97 but it may explain more if it were 98, although I looked at pinouts and c100 for both. I presume, and both show a purple gauge wire on the c100. Yet it's not there.

I guess the green wire at the 4 pin connector that goes nowhere, may need ground but from what I've read. That wire was for a tank pressure sensor.

For the record, when I wrote the list shown the pinout unused. It wasn't in terms of. A list to build a stand alone harness. It was a list of factory pinouts and wire color or whether that slot was empty.
I'm at a loss, any input appreviated.
 
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Bluebell

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So this is what I've found so far.
Ohm meter across purple and ground, at square 4 pin connector at firewall, does vary. It was .15 ohms when tank was emptyish and near 100 ohms when I filled tank up. Supposed be 0-90 so close enough.
I put ground wire to the purple/white output on the buffer module and the gauge immediately went to E.
I did figure out that the gauge wiring goes from firewall, into passenger firewall behind glove box to buffer module, then across dash to gauges.
So all that is as it should be.
But somethings not making any sense as gauge still reads past full.

The buffer module has pink wire shows 12v.
Then gray wore showing 5 volts
Then there's a purple/white that comes from the square 4 pin connector.
Then there's another purple/white for out put.
Then a black/white wire, this wire goes to ground but it also shows 1.5v. I disconnected it from buffer module and it shown 1.5v coming out of the module. Which seems odd, and the other end I clipped, goes ground.
So gauge works, sender wires from tank do vary resistance but can't seem figure out how to get a and b to connect, so the gauge works.
 

AK49BWL

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Okay... Neither purple/white goes to the gauge - one comes from the tank to module connector Pin C, the other goes from module connector Pin D to the 4.3's PCM. There should be a solid purple wire leaving from Pin L of the sender module that goes to gauge cluster connector Pin 16. And the Black/White wire should be grounded from the looks of it, at least it says "Fuel Sender Ground" on the PCM where it usually plugs in. The gray wire is indeed a 5v ref from the PCM so it sounds like that's working.

Reference:

This is all very interesting to me because the 5.7 trucks don't have all this extra stuff - the fuel gauge sender wire goes straight from the tank to the gauge. You can probably do the same, just get rid of the "buffer module".
 

Bluebell

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So after trying bypass the fuel buffer module, it finally sunk in that the buffer converts the varying resistance/ground signal from fuel sender to a voltage signal, that goes to the gauge.
So next step is remove cluster and figure out why the fuel gauge isn't grounded
 

Bluebell

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Sorry, AK49BWL, I didn't even realize you had replied till I went type .
 
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AK49BWL

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If you'll have a look at the two images I linked in my prior post, you'll see you're mostly correct as far as that 4 pin connector under the booster. Black/white should be ground. The black/white coming out of the buffer module should ALSO be grounded.

The green/white wire is going to nothing because V8 trucks didn't have tank pressure sensors in 97. 98 started that for the V8s, as well as fuel gauge sender to PCM connections. Have you tried at all running the purple/white at Pin C directly to the purple that goes to the gauge with the buffer module unplugged?
 

Bluebell

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Okay... Neither purple/white goes to the gauge - one comes from the tank to module connector Pin C, the other goes from module connector Pin D to the 4.3's PCM. There should be a solid purple wire leaving from Pin L of the sender module that goes to gauge cluster connector Pin 16. And the Black/White wire should be grounded from the looks of it, at least it says "Fuel Sender Ground" on the PCM where it usually plugs in. The gray wire is indeed a 5v ref from the PCM so it sounds like that's working.

Reference:

This is all very interesting to me because the 5.7 trucks don't have all this extra stuff - the fuel gauge sender wire goes straight from the tank to the gauge. You can probably do the same, just get rid of the "buffer module".
Do you have the page 1 and 2 for that schematic?
 

AK49BWL

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Do you have the page 1 and 2 for that schematic?
Sure.


Actually here's the entire folder, every schematic for a 97 truck. The file names get cut off for some reason but I think it's pretty easy to figure out what is what. https://www.ak49bwl.com/other/wires/1997K1500/PDF--PNG/ ... If you want PDF files then just remove the PDF--PNG/ part.
 

Bluebell

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If you'll have a look at the two images I linked in my prior post, you'll see you're mostly correct as far as that 4 pin connector under the booster. Black/white should be ground. The black/white coming out of the buffer module should ALSO be grounded.

The green/white wire is going to nothing because V8 trucks didn't have tank pressure sensors in 97. 98 started that for the V8s, as well as fuel gauge sender to PCM connections. Have you tried at all running the purple/white at Pin C directly to the purple that goes to the gauge with the buffer module unplugged?
That's what's confusing. Is the one green/white pin D on buffer, did go to the 5.7 pcm in my truck..
But I left it out, as the 96 pinout sheet had it marked as unused.
So then I thought my 5.7 pcm may be a 98 pcm but then it's my understanding the buffer module was only used in 97 models. So that further confuses things.

I have tried connecting the sender wire going into the buffer , directly to the fuel gauge.

That green wire just has resistance to ground disconnected from buffer but once attached to the buffer it has power 1v. And the buffer output purple to the gauge. Has power too. Around 3 volt. Found it strange it was more on the out than in, didnt think the buffer amplified the signal. With full tank, seem like it was 8v with empty tank. Estimated, higher voltage when tank was empty.
Appreciate your help, I've been going in circles trying figure this one out.
Did notice my cluster was labeled 1995 on the back of it. Guess they were all the same as far as gauge motors.
 
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AK49BWL

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It's strange to me that you're getting voltage on the sender wire at all. The sender should be directly grounded by a black wire (which should be grounded at the thermostat housing on a 5.7, but strangely enough is grounded via the PCM on the 4.3s), the purple/white wire should be showing 0v when not connected to anything because the gauge itself provides the power to the sender, which gives the gauge a variable ground input in order to show tank level. Only resistance should be readable with the purple/white disconnected from everything except the sender itself (0-90 ish ohms as you previously stated).

The gauge should read at about 3:00 with no connection (only cluster power and ground connected), and empty when directly grounded.

And yes all the fuel gauge motors are the same between 92-2000 actually, and that goes for every engine combination possible in that run. And yeah the 98s had built in buffering in the PCM, with PWM output to the gauge, so 97 4.3 trucks are the only ones with the buffer module at all. Which is why it was intriguing to me in the first place lol.

One really easy way to tell if you have a 97 or 98 PCM is whether there's a fifth connector on the PCM with only two black wires. 98+ didn't have that.
 
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