I ran my '84 Westy out of gas today, thank goodness within walking
distance of a gas station.

I knew the fuel was low, but the gauge was still well above the red
band, and I've driven more miles on a tank.  I was running errands
and decided to complete just one more task before filling up.

I put 16.1 gallons into the 16-gallon tank.  The van got 19.0 mpg on
this tank, so that's pretty normal.

The question is: Why didn't the gauge dip into the red, as it always
has before?

A clue: The gauge didn't budge when I poured a 2-gallon gas can into the tank.

When the engine died, I was sure it was because I had depleted the
battery.  I'm the guy that keeps posting to the list about the low
voltage from my alternator.  But that wasn't the problem this time.