I know this has been a sore subject for many who buy repro sending units and they don't work. When I bought my car it had (and still does) an aftermarket 5/16 sending unit with a 3/8 metal fuel line to the pump -- who did this??? I put in a barb adapter a few years ago until I get around to fixing this. Someone had shoved a 5/16 fuel hose down really far the 3/8 hard line and put on two clamps. Oh well, it worked for a while. Anyway, I'm finally ready to tackle this!
I replaced my OEM fuel gauge with a new OER fuel gauge when I redid my dash. The original one and OER repro both would only read almost full and then about 1/2 tank and no lower. So I really have no idea when I'm going to run out, so I just keep filling it up when I get to 1/2 tank. Sometimes I get 8 gallons, sometimes I get 4, sometimes I get 10 gallons. So, I'm ready to fix this!
A few years ago I decided that I'd like to put a return line in for summer driving and I purchased a 3/8 sender with a 1/4 return line and put it on the shelf. However, the past two summers I've not had an issue with fuel boil or vapor lock since I put a heat insulator gasket in place.
Because the fuel gauge issue is my last real annoying problem with the car, I decided to test the replacement 3/8 fuel sender I bought a few years ago with my multimeter to see if was in the 10 -73 ohm range. Nope! More like 14-90 ohms. Ouch! I started reading every post I could find on here and everyone said to bend the arm. So I tried to bend the arm and I got about 12 to 80 ohms and then the float would hit the bottom part of the sender near the sock. Wonderful!
So I went back to looking at the replacement sender I got. There is no way to move the tangs on the unit to get the arm in range based on how they are on the side of the unit (just like OEM) -- you need to bend the arm. Maybe if I welded a piece on I could get it better in range since I got it closer. I found a picture of an OEM one for sale and it had the same tangs on the side of the unit, so I assume that it's just the internals of the repros that are not calibrated correctly. I got it off eBay for 50 bucks so you get what you pay for I guess.
Anyway, yesterday I got a wild hair, and decided to drive to Classic Industries which is 2.5 hours away. More like 3-4 hours having to pass through LA traffic. I got there with about 15 minutes to spare, waited in line, ordered both a 3/8 with 1/4 return and a 5/16 units and asked the guy if I could test them before I bought them. When they called my name I took out my cheapo multimeter and damn it if it was not exactly 73 empty and 10 ohms full! Then I then tested the 5/16 and the same thing! What???? So I bought both at about 60 bucks each until I make up my mind. The other thing that I noticed is that the range tangs are on the OER sender are not stock. They are on the side of the unit where you can actually bend them to change the range???? Is this stock? Nope. Maybe? But can you adjust it? Yup! Wow! Why do I feel like I should get reimbursed by OER for this????
Anyway, I wanted to share since I'm not sure if I got a repro that just happened to have the correct readings and side tangs, then next shipment will be different? Who knows! But a correct range fuel sender with adjustable range tangs without bending the arm. Hurray!!!
Anyway, YMMV but I'm really happy about this and I wanted to share! I've put a few pics of the one I got a few years ago that actually has the sock that is too long compared to the pic of the NOS unit. The OER seems closer to stock (except for the tangs on the side of the unit) is the correct length to the sock.
Here are pics of a NOS 5/16 sender with the tangs on the side, and a comparison of the 3/8 eBay and OER fuel senders. OER is on the top and the eBay one is on the bottom in the pics
I replaced my OEM fuel gauge with a new OER fuel gauge when I redid my dash. The original one and OER repro both would only read almost full and then about 1/2 tank and no lower. So I really have no idea when I'm going to run out, so I just keep filling it up when I get to 1/2 tank. Sometimes I get 8 gallons, sometimes I get 4, sometimes I get 10 gallons. So, I'm ready to fix this!
A few years ago I decided that I'd like to put a return line in for summer driving and I purchased a 3/8 sender with a 1/4 return line and put it on the shelf. However, the past two summers I've not had an issue with fuel boil or vapor lock since I put a heat insulator gasket in place.
Because the fuel gauge issue is my last real annoying problem with the car, I decided to test the replacement 3/8 fuel sender I bought a few years ago with my multimeter to see if was in the 10 -73 ohm range. Nope! More like 14-90 ohms. Ouch! I started reading every post I could find on here and everyone said to bend the arm. So I tried to bend the arm and I got about 12 to 80 ohms and then the float would hit the bottom part of the sender near the sock. Wonderful!
So I went back to looking at the replacement sender I got. There is no way to move the tangs on the unit to get the arm in range based on how they are on the side of the unit (just like OEM) -- you need to bend the arm. Maybe if I welded a piece on I could get it better in range since I got it closer. I found a picture of an OEM one for sale and it had the same tangs on the side of the unit, so I assume that it's just the internals of the repros that are not calibrated correctly. I got it off eBay for 50 bucks so you get what you pay for I guess.
Anyway, yesterday I got a wild hair, and decided to drive to Classic Industries which is 2.5 hours away. More like 3-4 hours having to pass through LA traffic. I got there with about 15 minutes to spare, waited in line, ordered both a 3/8 with 1/4 return and a 5/16 units and asked the guy if I could test them before I bought them. When they called my name I took out my cheapo multimeter and damn it if it was not exactly 73 empty and 10 ohms full! Then I then tested the 5/16 and the same thing! What???? So I bought both at about 60 bucks each until I make up my mind. The other thing that I noticed is that the range tangs are on the OER sender are not stock. They are on the side of the unit where you can actually bend them to change the range???? Is this stock? Nope. Maybe? But can you adjust it? Yup! Wow! Why do I feel like I should get reimbursed by OER for this????
Anyway, YMMV but I'm really happy about this and I wanted to share! I've put a few pics of the one I got a few years ago that actually has the sock that is too long compared to the pic of the NOS unit. The OER seems closer to stock (except for the tangs on the side of the unit) is the correct length to the sock.
Here are pics of a NOS 5/16 sender with the tangs on the side, and a comparison of the 3/8 eBay and OER fuel senders. OER is on the top and the eBay one is on the bottom in the pics
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