Fuel Tanks and Interchanging

[wildman7798]

My 86 (see sig) has both fuel tanks and senders that work (sort of). When the tanks get to about half full the gauges fall off to nothing and bounce all around on the empty mark. I know there are lots of posts about this and I understand there is some inherent problem and a fix involved. Not really to the point where I would do anything about it. However I have a chance to pick up both tanks from a fairly low mile 96 7.3 4x4. I figured if I can get both fuel tanks on the cheap I might as well do it. The question is compatibility, will all the senders, fittings, ect. be close enough to have value for me? Was the problem I am having fixed with these newer senders? And anything else I might need to know about doing this would be helplful. Photo of the tanks in the 96. All that is left of it basically is frame and tanks, diffs and engine are gone. My truck is a SRW ext. cab, not sure what cab this truck had. Also do the factory overload spring contact brackets bolt to the frame or are they riveted?

You must be registered for see images attach

 

[Knuckledragger]

Ford changed the ohm values of the sending units sometime around 1988-9 so you can't use the new senders with your original gage. Either you need the old senders (that are not working correctly) or install a year-matched fuel gage. I have problems with my senders and have not yet figured out how to resolve them. Maybe what you are considering is the answer. I can't tell you if the mounting spots and hardware are similar enough to make the tank change easy, but would guess they are pretty close.

 

[franklin2]

In one of those many fuel sender threads I had the idea to use a sender for a 460. Autozone sells them for $78.00, someone may have them cheaper. In case it didn't work someone like Autozone would take it back, but if you got one for a 86-dwn with a 460, and put a piece of hose on the sender in place of the electric fuel pump, I would think it would work if it fit the hole in the tank. It has the return fitting on it like the diesel.