Dave wrote on 10/17/24 at 16:07:32: In addition to the fuel level sensor there is a device with an upper and lower float - the upper one is a shut off for the fuel pump that takes fuel from a remote tank and pumps it into the main tank - the lower float senses that the tank is low and shuts off the engine (more on that later).
When everything was back together and I connected the battery and turned things on - the fuel pump would run for 3 seconds and stop....then the low fuel warning light would come on. The fuel gauge read empty - however there was plenty of fuel in the tank. I checked the new sender and it was working properly - if I turned on the "Battle Short" switch the fuel pump would run. A check of the wires at the gauge showed it was properly grounded, was getting a proper signal from the sender in the fuel tank, and the gauge had power - therefore the gauge was bad......however this should not trigger a low fuel warning as the signals to the bad gauge were proper and the gauge does not send a signal to shut the engine down.
I found a thread were a guy had the same problem - when he turned on the "run" switch the pump would run 3 seconds and then stop and the low fuel warning would come on. The thread stated it was the float switch with 2 senders that causes this.....the lower float tells the system it is out of fuel. The sender in my tank was in good condition and the floats moved easily - and this problem did not exist prior to me cleaning the tank.
I thought about removing the float sender and looking at it - but first I decided to wiggle the generator around and slosh the fuel a bit to see if the float would move....and it worked! The bottom float must have been hung up at the bottom and didn't move when I added fuel to the tank. The fuel pump now runs continuously when the stitch it turned on and the warning light does not come on. (The fuel gauge is still reading "empty" and a new replacement gauge is in the mail).