Drewpy Dawg
15+ Year Contributor
- 96
- 84
- May 18, 2008
-
Sachse,
Texas
I recently cleaned out my fuel tank after it sat for 20 years with a few gallons of old gas in it. It looked like a serious mess at first and I thought I was going to need a new fuel sending unit at the very least. Fortunately for me I was able to save my sender and get it working properly. (I can make another post about what I did to save mine that may be helpful to others if anyone is interested.) Even really nasty looking ones may not need to be replaced. However, if you really do need a replacement there is the issue of finding a good used one and what it will cost.
I figured there must be another car that uses a sender that might work for us with some modifications. Denso made our OE senders, and senders for many other Japanese cars. After some searching I found that mid-80s Toyota Corollas have a sender that looks nearly identical to ours. The top plate is completely different, but the most important part for our purposes is the variable resistor. The Corolla sending units are available cheap on eBay (albeit aftermarket Chinese made copies, not original Densos) so I spent $20 on one to experiment with. Here's what I found.
The housing of the variable resistor is basically identical to ours. It is held to the top plate with two small spot welds, so it should be a simple matter of drilling those out and separating it. The rod holding the float is shaped slightly differently and the float sits on the opposite side of the rod from ours, but that could be massaged if necessary. It also uses the same kind of low fuel sensor that operates the dash warning light.
But will it work with our electrical system and gauge?
Fuel sender specs in the FSM
Full - 3 ohms +/- 2
Empty - 110 ohm +/- 7
My original fuel sender reads 3.4 when full and 116.3 when empty, so working properly within spec.
The Corolla replacement sender reads 5.0 when full and 110.6 when empty. Within our spec!
So we have a fuel sender that is cheap, readily available new, and works in the same electric range as our originals. No, it is not a direct replacement, nor is it a Denso unit. Some minor modifications will be necessary, but most of us have done far more complicated things on our cars many many times. Figured I would put this out there for anyone who runs into the need for a replacement sender and either can't find a good one or doesn't want to spend over $100 for a used one that's probably still rusty. Below are the pics comparing my original sender to the Corolla one and my tests with the multimeter.
I figured there must be another car that uses a sender that might work for us with some modifications. Denso made our OE senders, and senders for many other Japanese cars. After some searching I found that mid-80s Toyota Corollas have a sender that looks nearly identical to ours. The top plate is completely different, but the most important part for our purposes is the variable resistor. The Corolla sending units are available cheap on eBay (albeit aftermarket Chinese made copies, not original Densos) so I spent $20 on one to experiment with. Here's what I found.
The housing of the variable resistor is basically identical to ours. It is held to the top plate with two small spot welds, so it should be a simple matter of drilling those out and separating it. The rod holding the float is shaped slightly differently and the float sits on the opposite side of the rod from ours, but that could be massaged if necessary. It also uses the same kind of low fuel sensor that operates the dash warning light.
But will it work with our electrical system and gauge?
Fuel sender specs in the FSM
Full - 3 ohms +/- 2
Empty - 110 ohm +/- 7
My original fuel sender reads 3.4 when full and 116.3 when empty, so working properly within spec.
The Corolla replacement sender reads 5.0 when full and 110.6 when empty. Within our spec!
So we have a fuel sender that is cheap, readily available new, and works in the same electric range as our originals. No, it is not a direct replacement, nor is it a Denso unit. Some minor modifications will be necessary, but most of us have done far more complicated things on our cars many many times. Figured I would put this out there for anyone who runs into the need for a replacement sender and either can't find a good one or doesn't want to spend over $100 for a used one that's probably still rusty. Below are the pics comparing my original sender to the Corolla one and my tests with the multimeter.
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