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Tech / General EngineIs your car making a strange sound or won't start? Thinking of adding power with a new combination? Need other technical information or engine specific advice? Don't see another board for your problem? Post it here!
Hi guys,
New here so I apologize if this is wrong board for this question. I am restoring an 86 camaro sport with 305 4bbl. I pulled the tank and removed the sending unit and it doesn't look like any others I have found. Here is what I took out of tank. Notice no fuel pump or bracket. Do I not need both in tank and mechanical fuel pump? Car ran fine like this(fuel guage inop). Is this something from another car maybe? My odd fuel sending unit
86 Camaro Fuel Sender Carbuerator
I just yanked mine and it seems like I have the same one since I have only a carbuerator but I seem not to be able to find a place or part number to buy another one. I did see one sticker on it saying FAC 720735 but Google-FU could not find it. The ones I see online always have the one meant for intank fuel pump.
Any help with a part number or where to buy one would be very much appreciated.
The sending unit not working is a pretty good reason to replace it.
Leaving it sitting around right next to a cigarette lighter might also result in a replacement need of a different kind.
I don't know of any on the market anymore. The last one I knew of was from Spectra and was discontinued some years ago.
Sending units are somewhat universal though, and the main tube is just a ... tube. The little sock filter on the end is still available, I think; rockauto had it last time I looked. So, it wouldn't be too hard to replace just that part of it. Probably ANY GM sending unit from a car in that kind of year range would work, if mounted properly and with the float arm "adjusted" suitably. Might want to look at ones you CAN get, like maybe a 2nd gen Camaro/Firebird or something, and see if you make what you need out of that.
You are very observant. Though the lighter did cross my mind while yanking the tank but unfortunatlely I don't think any of the old gas would light and take everything with it.
Guess it is time to improvise as I was hoping there was some place that still carried these.
I appreciate you confirming what I was hoping not to be confirmed as I surfed and surfed looking for a replacement.
By all means surf; just don't expect miracles. You might come across a NOS one somewhere or something. Stranger things have happened.
Yeah the lighter thing kinda reminds me of the one alleged Darwin Award winner who used a lighter to prop the valve handle open on the gas pump while he was putting in his $2 worth or whatever... seems to me that anything related to gasoline and any lighters should ALWAYS be kept well separated. Although that Darwin Awardee wasn't quite as amusing as the one that used a .22 round to replace a fuse in his pickup, and the heat from the short that the fuse blew from in the first place, set off the round, which then shot him in the family jewels, effectively removing him from any further contributions to the gene pool. One of the rare Darwin Awardees to whom it wasn't awarded posthumously. All in all, object lessons in good reasons to keep certain kinds of things apart from each other.
You could almost certainly use the sending unit from a newer EFI pickup. Heck you could just use the whole pickup and just extend the tube down with a section of steel tubing and a hose (must be rated for gasoline submersion - normal fuel hose is not), and stick a screen on the end of it. Wouldn't be hard to fabricate at all. Just use the wiring for the sending unit and heat shrink the others inside the tank. Then if you ever wanted EFI you would be equipped with it. The aftermarket tanks all have the anti-slosh container for EFI as far as I can tell.
Will need to also get the EFI section from the filter to the pickup with it's higher pressure fittings and then adapt it in.
Just in case someone should find this thread due to a similar circumstance I have found out that.
1. They haven't made new ones in over a decade.
2. You can get a remanufactured one at hawkmotorsports but when you see the picture of it the price is $320 but when you click on unit it turns to $395. To rich for my blood.
3. Clean out your old one by taking apart the sender.
4. Rig one up using a fuel pump one without the fuel pump.
As you can see in the pics that my sock had all sorts of crud in it. Literally chunks of goop.
My sending switch was also gooped up with alot of rust. I did thoroughly clean it but the 0-90 ohms is still way off for now. Mass of chunks gooped up the fuel sock Sender had lots of rust and also chunks of goop in it.
10-06-2020, 01:36 PM
Although that Darwin Awardee wasn't quite as amusing as the one that used a .22 round to replace a fuse in his pickup, and the heat from the short that the fuse blew from in the first place, set off the round, which then shot him in the family jewels, effectively removing him from any further contributions to the gene pool. One of the rare Darwin Awardees to whom it wasn't awarded posthumously. 
