Sending Unit Recommendations

[Omni]

Good Evening All

Got the Party Barge ('65 Newport) out of dry dock today.
All the upgrades/tweaking done over he winter months checked out O.K. However, a new gremlin has appeared. The fuel tank reads empty.
Preliminary checks lead to the sending unit itself. The float was replaced a couple of years ago, along with with a solid state voltage limiter. Have continuity on the circuit board, so I am leaning toward the sending unit itself.
Lots of senders out there ranging from $45 to a couple hundred. Any brand/vendor stand out? Are the aftermarket lock rings/gaskets worth a damn?
Thanks for the responses.
Omni

 

[david hill]

Stay away from cheap aftermarket sending units. Accuracy is debatable, most new ones are not. Check your sending unit ground strap for corrosion and do the same for the body, battery and instrument panel grounds. As for lock rings, OEM is the way to go. The aftermarket ones are poorly made and don't fit well. Ground the sending unit wire at the tank, the fuel gauge should sweep towards full. Erratic or partial oper. indicates harness or gauge problems.

 

[Omni]

Good Morning All
Went out to the man cave today to prep the 'Barge' for the sending unit removal and to my surprise my full as of yesterday fuel tank is emptying itself on the floor.
So, now I am on the hunt for a fuel tank as well.
The one bright spot is at least this happened at home and not on a 'road trip'.
Omni

 

[live4theking]

I bought both my tank and sender from Vans, 8 or 9 years ago. The sending unit would not read fully than 3/4 of tank initially. I tweaked the float arm down the slightest bit and it indicates much better now. Use your old lock ring.

 

[Omni]

Just Got off the phone Vans. Tank/Sending Unit/Pad/Filler tube grommet should be here early next week. The straps and 'J' bolts were replaced about 2 years ago, so they still look good.
Planned on reusing the lock ring as the replacements appear to be sub par. I always run the float be hand before installing to insure that it will read as accurate as posible.
Omni

 

[volksworld]

bought one from Auto Zone...advertised as spectra premium...it showed up in some other brand, couldn't get it to seat (think it may have been hitting bottom of tank)...realized my float was full of gas so stole the float off of it...tried the new lock ring, was too thin so re-used the old one...when you get the set from Vans add some long jumper wires and see what the gauge reads with the tank empty and upside down to simulate full...you may need to bend stuff to read right...so far i've been happy with stuff i've gotten from Vans

 

[cbarge]

All aftermarket senders are not calibrated when new.
An alternative solution is use an interface module to calibrate your new sendercto your car.
MeterMatch Fuel Gauge Interface Module
Also here is a thread reagrding this subject.

Fuel Sender calibration using Meter Match

 

[garyh]

Is anyone Rebuilding Senders anymore ?

 

[cbarge]

Is anyone Rebuilding Senders anymore ?

Siince the senders for majority of our C's available new, reuilding senders is a dying art.
Ever since the addition of ethanol in our gas, most old senders pulled out of tanks are beyond refurbishing from the fuel drawing moisture.
Every sender I pulled over the past 18 years are junk,full of crud and badly rusted.
Rendering them not feasible to rebuild.

 

[Rusty Muffler]

bought one from Auto Zone...advertised as spectra premium...it showed up in some other brand, couldn't get it to seat (think it may have been hitting bottom of tank)...realized my float was full of gas so stole the float off of it...tried the new lock ring, was too thin so re-used the old one...when you get the set from Vans add some long jumper wires and see what the gauge reads with the tank empty and upside down to simulate full...you may need to bend stuff to read right...so far i've been happy with stuff i've gotten from Vans

I recently purchased a new tank from Vans and the fuel pickup was a good 1.5" off the tank floor which seemed excessive. I contacted Vans and asked him if that was normal. He said it was but with no explanation of why it was ok. When I asked about running low on fuel much sooner he got nasty with me! Don't know if it's a coincidence but I can't get the tank straps to reach the J bolts so I can spin the nuts on like the tank was slightly too big. I have longer j bolts on order to fix this. Just a heads up.

 

[volksworld]

in your case (Rusty) the pickup might be normal and the tank made too deep

 

[Omni]

Good Evening All
I have read all the comments (good and bad). Today UPS dropped off the new tank and associated parts. I unboxed everything and compared all the parts with the original. All seems well . I was pleasantly surprised to find that the tank was produced in Taiwan (at least its not China.)
One item to note is that the new tank has two vent nipples, while the original has only one. There in lies my question; do I just cap off one line, or do I fab up some kind of 'Y' fitting? If fabbing is the way to proceed, I am thinking about using brake line as I do not want to use a plastic fitting. Fabbing would also allow me to hone my soldering skills with my new butane powered soldering torch. I am going to solder a grounding lug to the sender.
As an aside I have been sidelined with a case of influenza 'A' so any progress is on hold until my spouse (a retired RN) gives me the green light.
Omni

 

[volksworld]

been running mine for 20+ yrs with one capped off...rubber hose and a long bolt with the threads cut off...think its the r/s one that's plugged...I have the ground wire clamped on the hose outlet with a screw type hose clamp...keep it simple...soldering to the sender with a flame sounds like a great way to screw up the plastic piece that the post for the sending unit wire passes through