RetiredRed66
New member
Hello, first post! Nice site. Love it. Found you all about a month ago. I used the carb tech forum to help my brother rebuild his Holley 2bbl.
I have a 1966 pickup bg 241 4 sp.
Hopefully this post will help save your old sender if new is not available or cost is an issue.
Here is what happened. I ran out of gas! That gas gauge we had working after all those years of not Working let me down again. It was stuck at a reading just over half! I had the wife bring me some gas. With the nationals under a month away I am glad this happened now, close to home.
I had wanted to drop that tank for some time now. I needed to fix that hole in the top from when Dad drilled for pop rivets in the the floors pan. So I took it down. Fixed the hole with jb weld. Took the sender out. Worn out. Sanding and cleaning rust on the outside of the tank I opened up two holes below the fuel line (on bottom) and jb welded those as well. We'll see how it holds up to corn-gas. But the sender, what to do. Not readily available from a quick google search. Suddenly I had an idea to repair it.
Here is the problem with the sender. There is a hole worn through the contact arm. There should be a small stamped button there for precise contact, but it is worn off.
This allowed the contact arm to lay flat against the board. Here is where the contact was being made resulting in the false reading.
First I has to slightly bend the high level stop out of the way to allow the contact arm to come off the board where I could work on it.
This was a brass screw the I used to fabricate a new button. I carefully filed it down and shaped it with a small shaft to fit in the worn through hole. The contact area needs to be rounded and smooooth. I took it up to 400 grit sandpaper.
I then positioned and cleaned the contact arm and soldered the button in place.
In this picture you can also see where the contact was rubbing below where the button had been.
Reinstalled.
So far so good! The tank is on and full. Jb weld is holding. The sender works. It read just below full though. I need to run it out of gas again, this time on purpose To see where it reads empty.
I have a 1966 pickup bg 241 4 sp.
Hopefully this post will help save your old sender if new is not available or cost is an issue.
Here is what happened. I ran out of gas! That gas gauge we had working after all those years of not Working let me down again. It was stuck at a reading just over half! I had the wife bring me some gas. With the nationals under a month away I am glad this happened now, close to home.
I had wanted to drop that tank for some time now. I needed to fix that hole in the top from when Dad drilled for pop rivets in the the floors pan. So I took it down. Fixed the hole with jb weld. Took the sender out. Worn out. Sanding and cleaning rust on the outside of the tank I opened up two holes below the fuel line (on bottom) and jb welded those as well. We'll see how it holds up to corn-gas. But the sender, what to do. Not readily available from a quick google search. Suddenly I had an idea to repair it.
Here is the problem with the sender. There is a hole worn through the contact arm. There should be a small stamped button there for precise contact, but it is worn off.
This allowed the contact arm to lay flat against the board. Here is where the contact was being made resulting in the false reading.
First I has to slightly bend the high level stop out of the way to allow the contact arm to come off the board where I could work on it.
This was a brass screw the I used to fabricate a new button. I carefully filed it down and shaped it with a small shaft to fit in the worn through hole. The contact area needs to be rounded and smooooth. I took it up to 400 grit sandpaper.
I then positioned and cleaned the contact arm and soldered the button in place.
In this picture you can also see where the contact was rubbing below where the button had been.
Reinstalled.
So far so good! The tank is on and full. Jb weld is holding. The sender works. It read just below full though. I need to run it out of gas again, this time on purpose To see where it reads empty.
