What happened to my fuel gauge?

[NortonCharlie]

I had 2 01 Tigers, The 1st one the gauge was probably the best I had ever seen.  Linear and consistent, Fuel light would come on when the needle hit the bottom of the red and had a US gallon left in the tank.  Flew to New York to buy the second one used one to ride home.  1st time I filled it up a mile or so down the road fuel light come on, look at the gauge it was at 0.  A few minutes later back on full.  It has been doing it intermittently ever since.  Oh and on this one that is the only time the fuel light comes on.  I have run it around waiting for the light and run dry.  Gauge doesn't seem to go below the bottom of the red on this one.  Thought they had this worked out by about 03 or so.

If you decide to pull apart and clean connectors get yourself a tube of di-electric grease.  I never plug in an electrical connector on any vehicle without it.  Never had a corrosion failure of a connector that has been greased. 

[Bixxer Bob]

No need for dealer help, it's easy enough.  Run the fuel level right down, remove tank, remove sender unit, clean and refit.  Timbox recommends turning it through 90 deg.  Clean the sender unit connector  (for some reason it always ends up a bit greasy) and reassemble.

[NortonCharlie]

Next time I have my tank off may try the 90 degree turn. 

My RS uses the same sender, had that one apart, made sure the float floated, checked resistance top and bottom.  Always shows low fuel light on (no gauge on that bike).  Hooked up some resisters and a pot to the bike and can turn it on and off.  Bought an extra sender on ebay, acted the same way.  I don't think I've had that one in the Tiger yet.

[ChillMan]

I don't have a place to do serious stuff like removing a tank. Even if I had a place, it would probably take me a whole day or more to get everything right... slowly and insecurely since I never did it before. And I'd still be worried that I missed something.

I'm still interested to learn. Does anyone have any photos of how it looks there? The service manual figures are not clear enough.

Where does one find di-electric grease? (Edit: Wikipedia says it is electrically insulating... confusing to me.)

[JayDub]

Try it without the hyphen:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_sacat=0&_nkw=dielectric+grease&rt=nc&LH_PrefLoc=1
I'm sure its available where you are.

[Wiggus]

Any auto parts store should have dielectric grease. It comes in a small tube.

Funny to come across this thread now; my 1999 Tiger just started doing this. It has been completely reliable before now. And against others experiences it seems to behave better in the heat. Several days ago I was riding in the 50's and 60's and it was up and down all day. Now in the high 70's it's been good. I'll keep you posted on other riveting developments.

[ChillMan]

My service guy had put some sticky grease on the connectors to the battery. Perhaps that dielectric stuff? I therefore assume that he improved other connectors too.

I filled my tank completely the other day again, and didn't get any warning. Interestingly, it's warmer here too, 15-20 (centigrade), compared to 10-15 last time I filled up the tank and got the warning lamp. Talk about personality. :)