Front tank sending unit.

Selahdoor

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Entire unit was rotted.

Wish they hadn't sent it away. I could have welded/soldered new pipes to the old plate, myself...
 

Brent

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@Selahdoor as far as your sending unit for your front tank is the same for plastic and metal. There should be a stamp of the manufacturer near the filler neck area. There are only a few manufacturers (MTS and Titian) that bought the molds for the plastic tanks. They should mount to the frame the same with the same brackets.
 

ifrythings

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Mine is exactly identical to yours.

Everything is exactly the same. Including the stamps!
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I like how the retaining ring screws down in these like a jar lid.

Could you do me a favor now?

Could you pull that sending unit, and take some measurements and pictures?


If it's anything like mine was, you will find the pipes completely rotted. But you should be able to at least hold a measuring tape up near things, and take pics of them. Like this one, I just took of the neck of mine...
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I'd kind of like a measurement of the circle plate at the top, and a few pics at different angles of the sending unit.

(The shop that took my tank off, sent the rotted sending unit off to have a new one made. And I eventually cancelled the order because it was just taking too long, and was going to cost almost three times as much as just a brand new tank, and sending unit. I wasn't the one who ordered it, and I wasn't the one who was going to pay for it, but I have a great dislike for wasting other people's money.)

Those pictures were from 3 years ago, my brother has that tank which we modified a front gas sender to work in it (for a gas truck) all we did was straighten the pipes a bit and rebent the sending unit arm to reach the bottom and top of the tank.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1261619-1989-f250-project-8.html#post17220802
 

Selahdoor

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No eye deer.

Never filled it up yet.

I THINK it's 19 gallons.


~~~


Now considering waiting for the middle of summer, and just swapping the front tank from the other truck, to this one.

At the very least, taking the tank off the other one would give me that experience and I'd know how to put it back on this one. LOL

But I would definitely take the sending unit out of the other one before installing the tank on this one. Just to find out the condition of that unit.

While it was working just fine, when I was driving that one... There's no telling whether it is rotted, and about to let go, or not... I want to have a look, just for kicks and grins.
 

coffeerich44

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Out of the 2 plastic tanks offered in front I believe one was a 19 and the larger was a 22. I have the 22 that you cant get anymore anywhere from anyone nor can you get the sender. Apparently it wasn't a very popular setup. The smaller plastic tank has the sender mounted directly on top of the tank and the pickup/return line tubing has some good sized bends in them and are still available aftermarket.The larger one which I have has the sender off a bit on an angle and the tubes are almost straight. I had to buy the available sender and just re-bend the tubes to make it work. I only had to take the tank out twice to get it right. Good times....
 

Selahdoor

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I am doing this now.

I dropped the front tank on the old truck. It is badly rusted. Almost rusted through on the sending unit plate, etc. Almost rusted through in 4 other places on top of the tank.

Back to wanting to put the plastic tank back in.

Now comes the time when I figure out whether I want to order and wait for the replacement sender unit. Try to carefully take the sending unit out of this and put it in the plastic tank. Or just make a whole new sending unit plate, solder a pipe into it, and use a universal diesel fuel pump to pump from this one into the back tank, when the back tank is empty...
 

Selahdoor

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Well, I got the sending unit out of the bad metal tank.

Inside the tank, the unit is pristine. Including the showerhead.

I am going to clean the outside of that plate the best I can. Then use ospho to treat the rust that is left. Give that a while to cure. Then I will either paint it with a good rustproofing paint, or coat it with epoxy.

The plate is just a tiny bit larger than the opening to the tank. I thought about filing down the circumference to fit the tank opening.

But I am instead, going to wait until it is coated and cured. Then I will very carefully apply a bit of heat to the tank opening, and shove the plate on there.

The same way you heat black irrigation pipe to shove a fitting inside it. Same plastic. Same process. This will seal better than if I were to file the plate down.

Probably have to make a gasket or two out of inner tube, as well.


Going to remove or cut off that tiny filler tube inside the larger one. How does that come out, at the top???

And going to gut the vent valve. Not sure how. I read that you would drill it out. But there is a loose piece inside of there that will just spin with the drill bit. Maybe cut enough of the inner plastic out of the way, to let the guts just drop out?

Wish there were a way to make the upper end of that vent hose flow more freely. The piece that is stuck in there is supposed to just kind of spread the end of the hose in a triangle shape and let a bit of air by, where the hose doesn't quite touch the plastic piece. But it doesn't work very well. The hose forms to it, too well.

Hmm. Maybe find a piece of metal or rigid plastic that the piece fits snugly into. Then figure out a way to get the rubber hose onto that fitting.
 

Selahdoor

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This is what I did with the vent.
The one on the right is as original. On the left, you can see that I took off the metal ring. Inside is a piston and a very light spring. The piston has a sharp point in the center. The bore that it rides in has a pinprick hole in the bottom. I took out the piston, and drilled the hole out a bit bigger.
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On the other end of the hose... I cut the end off of a tube of caulk. Then cut the tip off of that, to open it up. That left me with a rigid plastic tapered sleeve. I shoved the black piece into the large end of that. Then shoved the small end of that, into the tube. Now that end of it will stay open. Even if the rigid plastic deforms to the triangle shape of the black piece, it will never slump into the 3 "vees' formed by the black piece. Sorry about the fuzzy pic. Crappy camera.
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Now here is the entire thing, ready to be put back on the tank. I am considering drilling tiny holes where I have drawn the two green lines, just big enough to push a pin through, to make sure those pieces don't work themselves loose.
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Selahdoor

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Here is the sending unit. That rust is very deep. You can see why, while it was still on the steel tank, I thought it was about to rust completely through. Although, in this pic, I have already scraped around the outside edge, with a screwdriver.
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Here is the back, or inside of the plate, before cleanup.
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Here is the back after cleanup.
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Here is the top again, after I have cleaned it first by scraping with a screwdriver, then using a very coarse metal sanding unit on a variable speed oscillating tool, and then a couple carbide burrs, followed by a sanding wheel, then a sanding drum, on a dremel.
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That is as good as it is going to get. All the major crusty rust is off, and the majority of the surface is down to metal.

I am going to treat it with "OSPHO". Which is essentially phosphoric acid. It changes the rust chemically from iron oxide, to iron phosphate. It will seal the metal, and not allow it to rust again.

Once that is cured, I will fill that "well" there, where the two pipes come out, with epoxy. And put epoxy all around the outside of the electrical connector as well.

Once those are cured, I will paint it with a rust preventive primer. Then it will be ready to go in the tank.


Two questions...

1.) If I were to decide to put a sealant around the lip of the tank, before putting this plate on there, what would you guys suggest as that sealant?

Pretty sure RTV is out. I have never seen it last around fuel, for long. And I absolutely do not want that stuff or anything else squeezing out, inside the tank.

The lid to this tank is like a "ball" canning jar lid. Just a ring that screws down to hold the plate in place.

It is very difficult to screw on, and when it is tight, there is quite the gap between it and the plate.

So I am going to have to figure out something to take up as much of that gap as possible. Probably a hard ring of some kind. Maybe with an innertube gasket between the plate and the hard ring.

And also need some sealant, to be sure.



And second... What is that round wart looking thing on the side of the showerhead?
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I have been planning on removing the showerhead, and replacing it with a hose with a brass tee in the end of it. But this showerhead is in excellent condition. It is also flexible. Not rigid plastic.

So, I'm not sure what I am going to do about that.
 

chillman88

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What is that round wart looking thing on the side of the showerhead?

I think I read that's supposed to be some kind of bypass in case the screen gets plugged/gelled up but I don't know for certain. Just what I've heard.
 

Selahdoor

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Are you missing the o ring?

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Those are the standard metal lock rings.

This has a groove under where the sender plate will rest. A place for a thick rubber O-ring. Possibly even a flat rubber o-ring.

Then the sender sits on top of that. Then like I said, the plastic "lid" of this thing is like the lid on a canning jar. It's very much a lid, with a big hole in the center. Not a lock ring.

And the gap between that lid and the sender plate is probably at least a 1/4". That will take an awfully thick O-ring. An o-ring of that size also wouldn't do much to keep the sender plate locked down against the lip of the tank.
 

Selahdoor

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I think I read that's supposed to be some kind of bypass in case the screen gets plugged/gelled up but I don't know for certain. Just what I've heard.
Thank you. I suspected that was the case.
 

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