[T3] MPG 73 SB stock 1600 FI auto trans?

[William J]

 It's not leaking fuel and no black smoke out the exhaust and it has great pickup and maybe 40k on the engine. 

 I fixed the issue with the fuel gauge jumping when I tapped the dash the gauge used to jump . 

 The odometer works and does the trip meter. 

 I have not filled it yet three months ago after I did the gauge the needle was just below 1/4 tank and I put in 7 gallons and it was just at the full mark . I know if I fill it the needle as above full . All the driving I do is less the 35 MPH and all stop and go and here that means sitting in traffic and most trips are 2 miles round trip at most. Once every 4 onths I drive a 20 mile round trip yet it's still street traffic same speeds and stop and go.

 I did notice the full gauge when I start the car will read a bit over 1/4 tank then it will change to say 1/8 tank and then it's back to 1/4 tank. I suppose this is because for a long time I never had mare than a 1/2 tank in it. 

 The other day it the needle stayed just below 1/4 tank and I had 63 miles on it and I got gas as it turned out it was 6.67 gallons just  a bit less than 4 months ago lets say 7 gallons from just below 1/4 mark to just blow the full mark. 

 This is not an accurate way to check  MPG I know yet if the gauge is right then I got 10 MPG all 35 MPH stop and go and I keep the auot trans in 2nd because that's about the speed it will shift into 3rd if I let up on the gas and no point in all the extra trans shifting . 

 It runs great and in the last 10 years I have never paid any attention to MPG because it runs well and I don't drive much maybe 350 miles a year. The only reason I added the 7 gallons was to see if the gauge would work up to the full mark and to see how it worked after I fixed the loose connection at the black plug on the gauge cluster , the tab to the gauge lead was loose on the rivet so I had a spare plug which I cleaned and that one was tight. All of them were tight. I always knew before the gauge would jump from the red area to empty and if I tapped the dash near the gauge if it did not come up I knew I was almost out of gas. I always filled it when it was between the red and 1/4 tank mark. 

 My question is off the wall because most people drive freeways or highways and last time I did was 52 miles round trip and I used maybe 1/16 of a tank. 

 10 MPG seems real low yet the engine is not hot on such short trips add in all the sitting and stop and go. In 1991 when we still had leaded fuel I drive from Hollywood ,CA to Los Vegas on a full tank and close to 300 miles and still had a 1/4 tank when I got there so it got great milage that was with a tired engine and 116* temps. There were a few good long climbs getting there. Had the same results on the trip back. 

 Has anyone else driven just short trips like me and had low MPG? As I said I never really kept track of MPG just on how the engine ran. 

 All I can do now is I wrote down the odometer reading and always set the trip meter to all zeros when I get gas so I can check the odometer yet  the trip meter does seems to read proper. I did check the gauge at 0 ohms and 90 ohms and it reads full and empty yet at 0 ohms it does not go past full as it does when I fill the tank . I have 2 gauges and both did the same yet the one I have always used the little needle stop at the full end allows the needle to go past the full mark . I didn't change the gauge because I know how this one reacts. 

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