What tells the gauge how much fuel is in the tank?

[Shadetreemechanic]

You might be able to take it out and repair it. I had a bad sender on my 85, pulled it and found that one section of the resister was bad. I worked on it a while with a soldering iron and it works fine now.

 

[franklin2]

What year truck do you have franklin? I'm buying one with the same year as mine, but from a 250 w/ 460. It's drop in. Just shove a piece of hose on there where the fuel pump would go (if it were being used in the gasser). The elec connections may be differ (4 prong as opposed to 2 prong) but no worries, just plug the connection in.

By "drop in" I mean it goes in with NO modifications. I think you have a handle on the possible small modifications required, so let us know if it works. Knock on wood, my sending units still work for now, but I will certainly take note if your experiment works. Mine is a 89 f250.

 

[tbrumm]

http://www.tristarrradiator.com/index.html

Try going to the above link. Oldbull8 posted this a while back. Maybe this would be an alternative to trying to 'Make one work" or a junk yard part that may be bad as well. Also, don't replace your plastic "showerhead" with a new one. It will simply fall offor disintergrate in the future and you will be back where you started. Do the "hose mod" to the end of the pickup tube as many have done already. Good luck and keep us posted. Todd

 

[warhog]

Thanks for the link bud, from what I can remember browsing yesterday, they wanted a heck of a lot of money for a rebuild! I could have 4 of the ones i'm going to use for that price.

I'll keep everyone updated on the gasser model.

 

[MIDNIGHT RIDER]

Replacing the sending-unit with another direct-replacement is a very poor choice; there are many much better options that are far more reliable and about 1/10 the cost.

In about a thousand similar threads, I have posted a link to a very well-written pictorial TECH article showing how to retrofit a generic J.C.Whitney sending-unit onto the factory assembly; I did this on my truck many years ago and the results are far more reliable than the factory units ever were.

I just recently switched over to a new computer and thus cannot post the link at this moment.


An even better option is to simply install plain-Jane SunPro senders in the tanks, along with matching SunPro gauge units in the cab; thus, you will have separate individual gauges showing the level in both tanks simultaneously.


On a side note, be aware that most of the 6.9 and 7.3 equipped U-Haul trucks were I-H chassis and thus will have I-H electrics and such.

There were a few Ford 1-ton chassis U-Hauls with IDIs, in which case parts should pretty-much be a direct swap.

I sort of believe that the U-Haul Fords had ONE single big saddle-tank, instead of the more complicated two-tank system.

 

[Matrix37495]

Before you go ordering a new sending unit, check to make sure the float on your current one isn't fuel logged.

I Was in the same boat as you when i pulled my sender and found the float half full of fuel. It still varies some, but is much better than it was now...

 

[franklin2]

Replacing the sending-unit with another direct-replacement is a very poor choice; there are many much better options that are far more reliable and about 1/10 the cost.

In about a thousand similar threads, I have posted a link to a very well-written pictorial TECH article showing how to retrofit a generic J.C.Whitney sending-unit onto the factory assembly; I did this on my truck many years ago and the results are far more reliable than the factory units ever were.

I just recently switched over to a new computer and thus cannot post the link at this moment.


An even better option is to simply install plain-Jane SunPro senders in the tanks, along with matching SunPro gauge units in the cab; thus, you will have separate individual gauges showing the level in both tanks simultaneously.


On a side note, be aware that most of the 6.9 and 7.3 equipped U-Haul trucks were I-H chassis and thus will have I-H electrics and such.

There were a few Ford 1-ton chassis U-Hauls with IDIs, in which case parts should pretty-much be a direct swap.

I sort of believe that the U-Haul Fords had ONE single big saddle-tank, instead of the more complicated two-tank system.

I saved your posts on this subject, as that was something i was going to try if mine went bad. But if you don't mind, would pretend you are doing it again and try and get the same sending unit on JCWhitney again? They have changed what they sell, and the old links don't work, and some of the ohm values they list are conflicting. So it would be good to update what to order from JCWhtiney.

But also, I believe the original poster said his original sending units were rusted. I have never had one rusted that bad(I have fixed a lot of resistance boxes myself) but I believe we had a recent poster on here that actually broke one of his fuel line fittings off the sending unit because it was so rusted. So a complete new/retro fit unit is their only choice.

 

[lotzagoodstuff]

Pull your front sending unit out as you can sneak it out without dropping the tank. You won't even put your truck down to do this as you can run off the rear tank. Once you get a look at the condition of your old sending unit, you can decide how much (or how little) you want to spend to fix it. My front tank had a bad float (very common, very cheap to fix, I think I paid $4 each for them a while back) but I also measured the impedence off of the sending unit before and after I cleaned it. Keep in mind that a sending unit is usually just a potentiometer with a float on it to sweep the wiper accross the path of "full" to "empty", just like a volume control. Just like when the volume control on your old amplifier gets dirty and crackels, 9 times out of ten you just clean them and put them back together.

Good luck, I always like to see what comes out with the sending unit as you never really know what your gonna pull out

 

[warhog]

thanks for the info everyone.

Midnight - every post i can find from you on the subject is you telling everyone in a thousand posts you already told everyone about the write up lol. never see an actual link so i made this thread.

The front sender probably isn't too bad, being it lasts longer before it shows empty. The rear, forget it, it's going to need replacing. The sending units i've see so far, say they can only be used as stand alone units. Which is a problem since everything is one unit submerged in ours, correct?

 

[franklin2]

thanks for the info everyone.

Midnight - every post i can find from you on the subject is you telling everyone in a thousand posts you already told everyone about the write up lol. never see an actual link so i made this thread.

The front sender probably isn't too bad, being it lasts longer before it shows empty. The rear, forget it, it's going to need replacing. The sending units i've see so far, say they can only be used as stand alone units. Which is a problem since everything is one unit submerged in ours, correct?

Yes, a lot of them are the sending unit only, no fuel line fittings. Which worked on ok on a old 53 f100 I had. It's tank had a fuel sending unit hole, and a separate hole for the fuel line pickup. I used a JCWhitney unit in that truck, and mounted the guage under the dash, but the gauge was a little junky, you had to peck on it sometimes for it to read. You get what you pay for I guess.

 

[MIDNIGHT RIDER]

I searched my old posts and had no trouble finding the link; enjoy :

http://www.ford-trucks.com/user_gallery/displayalbum.php?&userid=170072&albumid=16937


The trick to using the after-market universal sender is that you remove the float-arm portion of the original and retrofit the float-arm of the universal in it's place, on the fuel-tubes.

You clip and crimp/solder the wires to the existing wires INSIDE THE TANK.