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Well, I tried to measure resistance and continuity but kept getting eratic readings on my DVOM. I opened the resistor and cleaned the windings and contact, still eratic readings. Bent the spring metal contact in the housing, no difference. Tried measuring resistance on the windings themselves, 0-100 ohm, but no continuity throughout the full range of windings.
Looking more closely, I found one winding near the "full" position busted. I was able to place a blob of solder in this area, re-connecting the busted wire. I probably messed up the correct resistance there, as soldering the busted wired only is impossible and now some or all of the upper windings are soldered together. Checked resistance again, now had 0-100 ohm when moving the arm.
Put everything back together, started the engine, gas gauge is now down three or four bars. Will check reading as I drive the car and use up the gas.
This is what the sending unit looks like:
And this is a photo showing what was in the gas tank and what I got out:
Hay I'm all for Fix it if you can but that is Nasty. Why didn't you just replace the unit, they are available not super expensive. Even a Amazon or Rock Auto would be better. Funny come to think of it I put an Rock Auto in my 93 Corvette and an Amazon in my truck
It could have been worse and the pump itself works. Why spending 200 dollars if it can be fixed? If I replaced everything that' s not quite exactly as designed on this vehicle, I would have to put in new parts worth the money I got her for. Beside, I like old stuff and fixing it (although 35 years is not really old) and the repros these days are not really of good quality.
Last edited by colonel328; Apr 24, 2023 at 09:16 AM.
So I took a different approach when I had the same issue. I cut the 0-90 ohm rheostat off of my sending unit and replaced it with a 40-250 ohm one from a Chevy Blazer. Then I used a cheap digital converter to convert the signal to 0-90 ohm. The big advantage to doing this was it made the fuel gauge a lot more accurate. You calibrate the signal converter in the real world so with an empty tank and then a full tank instead of just lifting the float all the way up and down. This puts the ohm range into real world travel and gives a more accurate signal. At a 1/4 tank its just as accurate as 3/4 tank. That and the newer design rheostat is a lot more common. If this one ever fails I can just go to a junk yard and grab another one. I'll post some picks and I'll see if I can find a link to the signal converter.
I did all this while converting my sending unit for flex fuel and for holding a Walbro 455 LPH pump.
I welded an old die grinder wrench to the steel tube and with some bending was able to use that to hold the new rheostat.
This is the signal converter I used. I got mine from Aliexpress for a little less but it only saved me like $5 Fuel level signal converter
Designer Imagines A Corvette That Looks More Like a Corvette Than the Corvette
Slideshow: A Jaguar designer's personal project imagines what a modern front-engined Corvette might look like if Chevrolet revisited the golden age of the Stingray.
1986 fuel sending unit repair
