Fuel Gauge Sender Questions

[Guest philedmonds]

The fuel gauge sender for my B1FA doesn't work. I've tested it and it appears to be shorted out. Can these be rebuilt? Any recommendations? Several sources have a NOS one for a lot of money and I'd like to either get mine rebuilt or find a good used one. Someone told me that it has an unusual ohm range. Someone also told me the ones for the same era cars used the same ohm range, but the arm is shorter on the cars because the tank is shallower. If this is true, I could modify the car one to make it work. Thanks in advance.

[Guest Nile Limbaugh]

The sender on my 37 Dodge didn't work, but I took it apart and found that the wiper that runs across the variable resister didn't contact anything. By gently bending things I was able to make the connection then I reassembled it with pop rivets. It works fine. Just make sure your ground is good all the way from the tank to the battery: run jumper wires if you have to.

[stevenelle]

If the solution above don't work, then you can get a generic sending unit from JC Whitney for about $18. I put one on B2B and it works fine. It is fully adjustable as to lenth of arm and height of unit in tank. The ohm range is slightly different than the original mopar unit, so my tank is empty when the gauge shows 1/4 tank. As long as you remember this, everything is ok but not as good as original. It is slightly a hassle to install but better than spending $75 on a Bernbaum unit.

[Merle Coggins]

What is the proper resistance range for our fuel sensors? My tank is junk and the sensor is missing. My radiator guy has been going through his fuel tank catalog to see if he can find something close that we can convert to work, and I'll have to get a new sensor to fit it. It may be handy to know that the resistance should be.

Merle

[Zeke1953]

I believe that the resistance on the fuel gauge sending unit is 90 ohms empty and 10 ohms full. Zeke

[Guest philedmonds]

Thanks for the input and advice. I decided my sender was junk and I'd try to take it apart and fix it since I was expecting to buy a new or used one. The "can" was soldered to the rest of the unit and I was able to melt it. I cleaned the wiper and the coil good, bent the wiper and soldered it back together. It now reads very close to spec which the Shop Mamnual says is 90 ohns empty and 20 ohms full. Hopefully it will work when I get it all back together. Thanks again for the input.