Replace fuel tank level sender...much to this job?

[bigchillcar]

Hi folks,

My '74 911 has a fuel gauge that is reasonable most of the time, but occasionally sticks high or low and on one auspicious occasion, left me to push the car from an intersection up to a gas pump...you can imagine my chagrin at this.

Anyway, the sender is priced ~$76 at Pelican ans I may want to make this a 'DIY' project. How hard is this job to perform and what's involved?

Thanks,

Ryan

[GIBSON]

Ryan, it's an easy job, the sender is held in place with 5 or 6 cheese-head screws. It's a good idea to replace the gasket at the same time, some were cork, others a rubber material.
The wiring harness just slides off and on. While you're at it, take a flashlight and have a look down inside your tank, check for sediment at the tank bottom. If it's really nasty you might consider removing the tank for a good cleaning.

The problem with your old sender is most likely rust on the wires that guide the sliding float unit in place as it moves up and down with the fuel level. Sometimes you can take these things apart and clean the corrosion off the wires and make the slider work again. I ended up just replacing my sender as the corrosion was too advanced. Anyway, it's a pretty simple job.

[bigchillcar]

Bruce,
Thanks for the quick input. I wanted first to gauge difficulty...the most advanced thing I've done was to remove my alternator and voltage regulator, have them bench-checked and re-install afterwards (bad reg.) with new belts as well. That took 8 hours...mostly figuring out how to seat the alt. so the fan wouldn't rub the housing! I think I saw that job rated a '3'...which makes me think that my 'handicap' is to add another 3 or 4 to that!


Needless to say, I'm sure draining the tank first makes the job more dry. Thanks for the note about the wires, sounds like a good thing to check. Tapping on the glass of the gauge face will often make the indicator needle move up or down. I usually strike it several times and calculate a mean and a standard error!

Ryan

[Neilk]

Ryan,

If tapping the glass of the gauge moves the needle, perhaps you should clean the electrical connections behind the gauge. By your description is sounds more like a guage problem than a sender one.

Although gas level senders are known to stick at times, perhaps you can clean the connectors first and seeing if that makes a difference. If you don't notice difference after a couple of tanks, replace the sender.

My worthless 2 cents.

[bigchillcar]

Neilk,

Your $.02 might wind up being worth ~$76!

Ryan

[McDaniel]

With all of the above. If you do have/decide to replace it is
a really simple job as described above.
After the alternator, this is a piece of cake...er, strudel.

[bigchillcar]

Peter,

Great technical article(s)! It's nice to have a little perspective before just diving into a new undertaking and I hadn't found one on Pelican when I had looked at the start.

Ryan

[cstreit]

Make sure you disconnect the battery... You wouldn't want those wires sparking near that hole! Common sense I know, but hey, I'm Capt. Obviousman today.

[ChrisBennet]

Have you checked out this thread yet?
-Chris