What is everyone doing if the sending unit stops reading fuel level? Are you rebuilding/cleaning? Retrofitting a different sending unit into the tank?? There's probably other discussions on this but I didn't see any at a glance.
Thanks in advance.

 

There's quite a few different units depending on the engine in your car. Just taking a wild guess:

https://www.hawksmotorsports.com/82-...t-refurbished/

Hawks has the other's as well if you have the HO engine or the cross-fire (obviously not since we're in the carb forum, but in case it's been swapped, etc)

GD

 

I've visited that site and saw the option it's almost $400 for a refurbished unit. Mine is a carbureted upgraded 350 I guess I am basically looking for input to see if people are cleaning up their old ones if possible or modifying the fuel injected ones to make it work. $400 is a premium just to make a fuel gauge work! Definitely money that could be better utilized in other areas. I'm going to try and get the old one working right and look at modifying the pickup on a different one if possible. I just don't know whether they kept the same diameter of sending unit throughout those years so the locking ring and everything works as it should.

 

I'm sure if Hawks can refurbish them, it is certainly possible to do so. But how many parts cars do you need to make a single good unit? And how involved is the process? It may be that they are having custom wipers or boards made up to accomplish the refurbishment. Cleaning it is not likely to resolve the issues - most of the GM failed sending unit I have seen have the wipers worn down or the resistor board worn through, and sometimes are so "loose in the hips" that they don't make contact anymore.

Time is money. A new sending unit from Spectra for the newer cars is about $140.


I have this one in my car and they don't read accurately - they often won't go all the way to the top of the gauge, and the orientation of the lines isn't quite right requiring tweaking, etc.

The Hawks piece is a refurbished factory part. So it will fit just like the original. And yeah it's $260 more. But you can pull your tank, swap the sending unit, and be done in a couple hours rather than pulling the old one out and "investigating" it while the car is torn apart for some unknown time period - and you may just find that it's a lost cause in the end and have to buy one anyway.

It's your money but it's not that bad of a deal IMO. Fuel pump/sending unit assemblies for newer cars usually range between about $300 and $600.

GD