Petrol tank sender

[Tim WalkerParticipant]

My sender has died a death, because the shellac on the cork float has degraded (quickly) with the ethanol in the fuel. What’s the replacement, please!

[Peter FeredayParticipant]

If you are talking about a French car the float is skewered on the metal arm.it can be removed carefully and replaced with a quality cork – I have used Moet and Chandon Champagne corks, but, realistically any cork should do. You can try sealing it with araldite type glue although it never seems to work completely. Consequently it has become a yearly replacement ‘service’ item for me as the cork over time becomes porous and sinks. See my bit in Floating Power V0lume 43 Issue 2 page 7 March/April 2019. Never found a proper replacement part – all available plastic floats don’t seem to have the skewering method of fixing onto the arm.

Peter

[Tim WalkerParticipant]

Ah. I’ve used the champagne cork, and found it, as do  you, to be a service item! I think that I’ll try a plastic float tied to the arm with something like tape, if I can find one which doesn’t bleed in ethanol/petrol.

Whilst on the subject (nearly), I took the petrol pipe out of the tank (of the “new” car) and found it completely blocked with gunk. I disassembled it, cleaned it and replaced it- ran a lot better. The car’s previous owner hadn’t used it for about 12 years, so it wasn’t ethanol! I

[Peter FeredayParticipant]

Hi Tim – I think it’s Tim, checking on your membership number. There now seem to be a load of cheap Chinese sender units with a skewered float on ebay, Cheap enough to keep the float and throw away the rest – like https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/402259541854.  You might have to straighten out the end of the sender arm a bit to fit in the float though.

 

Peter

[BernieParticipant]

…… or join/attach (braze?) the new arm to your old one?

[Tim WalkerParticipant]

Hi Peter, yes, it’s Tim. The item on eBay was £4.49 including postage, and the float is more or less the same size- it’s simple to remove. I’ve only bought the one, but I’ll keep the site for future reference. Thanks!!

[Tim WalkerParticipant]

Hello  all

The float for the sender is smaller than the cork one, but I’ve put it on and it works a treat. Here’s how I did it.

Remove the three screws to fit the sender to the body of the car. The float is to the right of the sender, but should come out with a bit of a wiggle. I took the three wires out first, mine (1953) were half round terminals so you only have to undo the nuts a turn.

Don’t forget to disconnect the battery!

Take the new sender and cut the wire about 80% of the way up the return wire- you should have the sender, a 90 deg. bend, and about 10 cm of wire. Now remove the cork from the float on the old sender, and you will find that the wire has got two bends in it such that the new sender won’t go on.

So, remove the whole wire (just) including the bend, so that you’ve got the old sender, and the new sender plus 10cm of wire. Take off the new float- there is a star washer on it- and then solder the new and old pieces together. Replace the  float, and the washer, and, as they say in the Haynes manual, refit!

It’s £4.50, and it works. Postage from China ostensibly takes five weeks, but mine arrived a week after I ordered it.

I would have had photos, but despite the technology, I can’t get it to sync.

[Peter FeredayParticipant]

Well done Tim, I will have a go when my present float gives out – probably very soon. Some photos would be great if you can puzzle out how to do it,

Just managed to upload this pic of my original float – now u/s and a Moet replacement which has also now been replaced.

[Richard LarterParticipant]

Hi Peter

Early SU carbs have a brass float with a hole up the centre which may be adaptable. I will see if I have a spare one and run it over to you when we are permitted to travel more than 5 miles.

Cheers Richard

[Peter FeredayParticipant]

Thanks Richard, will look forward to seeing you.

 

Peter

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