Not happy with Wild Horse Sherman Tank

I agree about these tanks, I was not impressed at all for the amount they cost. One of my biggest complaints is that the pump is mounted to the bottom of the tank, it should be mounted like the OEM setup, so when you remove the top access plate the whole assembly comes out, pump and sending unit, its a real PIA to install a new pump in these things, also it would cut down on noise when the pump is running. Also the pickup and return lines being next to each other makes it so that its almost impossible to use both the supplied AN 90* fittings and make it look nice.
As for the sending unit I bent the arm down as low as possible so it reads full a long time but once it is on "E" there is only ~2.5 gallons in the tank.
These tank designs and sending units need some serious work especially if you are gonna charge that kinda $.
I'm not trying to bash WH, I do like doing business with them, their customer support has always been good to me, however I do think we need to let them know about these things so they can work on getting the problem fixed and build a better product.

I will have to agree somewhat on the cost of the tanks and being filthy inside and also the sending unit issue. I believe a vendor should do their part and at least make the fab shop do theirs. Then I also think they should do their research in different sending units versus dash clusters out there and try to come up with some solutions to the problems. Yes checking the tanks out for quality before the install is a must on everything but to find it filthy is not good. I'm also in the market for the efi tank but I might hold off now to see what they will do about this issue. A little adj is fine in my books but when it turns into a hassle then it's time to fab your own.

If there's any redesign that happens, it'll happen with BC since it's their tank. I had a lot of plugged fuel filters with my NWMP tank many years ago so I knew to clean my BC tank out before I used it (and also tried to get the gauge calibrated before I installed it). Mine goes to 3/4 when it's full and I deal with it accordingly.

I know Broncobowsher and others have looked into Isso and other alternative brand sending units. Classic Instruments just came out with another one that might be worth a look too.

Todd Z.

I built my own tank with an OEM explorer sending unit and pump combo so I cannot comment on the aftermarket stuff. My tank was clean as a whistle and I had the luxury of adjusting the float before hand.

However, for those that are installing a new tank regardless of the brand I highly recommend adding known amounts of fuel and measuring the ohms from the sender when you first fuel up. I added one gallon at a time and recorded my findings. This way if the gauge ever failed I had a baseline for what was in the tank based off a quick resistance reading.

Another added benefit was that I had a very good estimate of how much fuel was in the tank and set my low fuel light accordingly (I have Speedhut digital gauges). Mine is the opposite of most peoples' problems in that it stays on full for a long time before it drops, much like many newer vehicles. The bottom 3/4 has a very smooth decline.

Sorry for getting of topic a little. Good luck.

Whenever installing an aftermarket sending unit, always test them to your gauge before installing. It gives you the chance to understand your fuel readings before having to learn them the hard way. Also, once you have the proper sending unit resistance, you need to adjust the float operating range based on your tank. Even though these products are sold together, I'd never rely on the aftermarket units to be consistent.

Part of owning 40+ year old vehicles and customizing them is that 99.9% of everything you do isn't 'plug and play'. Installing custom parts in any vehicle requires YOU to do your own research and verify that things work properly. You have to take some initiative to make sure your tank is clean, take a look at the sending unit and do your best to calibrate it to your gauge before you install the tank... I've built several hot rods with fuel gauges that work about the same as these do, that's all part of building custom cars.

I can't wait to hear about your fuel pump going out, and you having to drop the tank (that's full of gas) in a Autozone parking lot at 10PM with no tools or jack! And yes most of us here have done that exact thing.

I have the same problem. I have ~1/2 tank of fuel in there and it reads just over E. What I did today was hook my OHM meter the sending unit while it is in the tank. From there I took it out several times and bent it further down a little at a time to get ~23.3 ohms which is half of a tank. Once I got it close to that I hooked the gauge back up and it read a little over 1/2 tank. Full is ~9.6 and empty is ~73 ohms. I will see how it goes from here.

I'm impressed that there is a thread that DirtDonk hasn't responded to.

If the sender unit is appropriate for your gauge, I can't see why you need to make this more confusing.
Just set the float arm up so it almost touches the top of the tank, and almost touches the bottom.
The length of the arm is important here. If it's not long enough, or too long, the variable resistor will be either out of range or mid range. Both of these are bad for proper gauge function.

It's like this...
If the float arm it too short to reach both the top and bottom, how can it be accurate? The same goes if the arm is too long and the float isn't able to make a full sweep.

You have to have the correct sender unit for the particular tank height.

I ordered the one for my wife's Bronco directly from BC, and I have to say it was clean and the gauge is very accurate. I was leary from all the threads...but it turned out just fine for us. Inconsistent reviews out there....

Do these tanks come with the sending units already installed? If that's the case, you should be able to consider them accurate. If they aren't you certainly have a reason to gripe.
But if they aren't assembled when you get them...
then that's your part of the job.

I copied this directly from Wild Horses EFI tank page.

Unlike other tank "kits" on the market the Sherman Tank comes ready to install. The sending units are tested before we install them into the tanks and after we install them this way we know they are functioning properly when we send them.

BCB makes the Sherman tank but we do not install the sender. All the aftermarket senders that I know of are linier. But the EB gauge and stock sender is nonlinier so while full=10 ohms and empty=70 ohms should read correctly on all gauges the center will be off with the linier sender so we have our sender made nonlinier to match the stock gauge. But even with the new nonlinier sender we have people complain about the gauge. Before we ship a tank we vac. it out, before we install the sender we check the ohms with the sender up right=70 ohms and upside down=10 ohms. Then we install it in the tank and check the ohms with the tank up right and upside down. And still on occasional we get complaints. Most of the time the problem is not in the tank but grounds, bad connections, ICVR, switch or bad gauge.
To check your side go buy 2 resistors, one 10 ohms and the other a 70 ohms. Ground one side of the 10 ohm resistor and touch the other side to the sender wire that goes to the tank. The gauge should read full. Put he 70 ohm in the same place and the gauge should read empty. If both of those tests are good the problem is in the tank. And on rare occasion I thank UPS drops them on the side. and damages the sender

chuck said:

BCB makes the Sherman tank but we do not install the sender. All the aftermarket senders that I know of are linier. But the EB gauge and stock sender is nonlinier so while full=10 ohms and empty=70 ohms should read correctly on all gauges the center will be off with the linier sender so we have our sender made nonlinier to match the stock gauge. But even with the new nonlinier sender we have people complain about the gauge. Before we ship a tank we vac. it out, before we install the sender we check the ohms with the sender up right=70 ohms and upside down=10 ohms. Then we install it in the tank and check the ohms with the tank up right and upside down. And still on occasional we get complaints. Most of the time the problem is not in the tank but grounds, bad connections, ICVR, switch or bad gauge.
To check your side go buy 2 resistors, one 10 ohms and the other a 70 ohms. Ground one side of the 10 ohm resistor and touch the other side to the sender wire that goes to the tank. The gauge should read full. Put he 70 ohm in the same place and the gauge should read empty. If both of those tests are good the problem is in the tank. And on rare occasion I thank UPS drops them on the side. and damages the sender

Click to expand...

That all sounds good, but you still don't know if the float is at the bottom of the tank with the tank right side up or at the bottom when it's upside down.

I think this may be why some are showing full too long or show empty prematurely.

blubuckaroo said:

That all sounds good, but you still don't know if the float is at the bottom of the tank with the tank right side up or at the bottom when it's upside down.

I think this may be why some are showing full too long or show empty prematurely.

Click to expand...

You prolly can hear the float arm go "tink" against the upper or lower wall of the tank when you flip it over.

bronconut73 said:

You prolly can hear the float arm go "tink" against the upper or lower wall of the tank when you flip it over.

Click to expand...

Mine sure didn't. In one of my earlier posts of this thread, I referred to the sender unit arm being too short. The one that came with the aux. tank worked fine because the tank is shallower, but the one for the main tank was too short to work properly.
I bought those tanks from Aero, and they sent me the proper sender unit after I called them.

Of course, I can't say for sure that's browngr5s problem, but it is certainly worth a look.

Well I see I've been missing a bunch here!
First of all, sorry you're going through all this browngr5. It is unfortunately an all too common story line here (with all tank brands). And while it can sometimes be due to the gauge or wiring on an old EB, it sounds like yours is not in that category because you've driven yours before and know the stuff was working with the original setup.

We do in fact test every sender that we ship out. It's just tested to be within the correct ohm range however, and not tested electrically with a gauge through it's range for proper reading. So if we're installing them even slightly incorrectly, that could easily lead to this problem.
I've been of the opinion for awhile that we should not, in fact install them before shipping. Too many chances to bounce them hard enough to damage or at least change the readings. But with fewer bad experiences than good, it has not always been at the top of the radar range.
Guess we'll be talking about that this week at work.

It's true that, like Chuck was saying, these are standard linear sending units. But that would theoretically not limit them from reading the full range from FULL to EMPTY. It would just skew the readings in the middle of the range.
We do use several different vendors, including BCB and Classic Instruments I believe, but have not heard of any real differences that would lead us to believe that one is less desirable than another. I can't remember who Aero uses, but it's very possible that at least some of them cross over.
The NWMP/Sunset Fab tanks use some of the same sending units too, but I'm pretty sure they're set up different due to the different mounting heights needed. And we check those as well.

As far as some of the comments about reading empty with 3 or 4 gallons still left, frankly I'm a big fan of that. With 5 or more, that might indeed be too much, but I like a little "reserve" in my tanks.
Too many times people let their gauges run down low before filling, so even with a baffled tank, it's not really a bad idea to leave at least a little in reserve. I'd personally be happy with 2 gallons maybe, but with electric in-tank pumps, a little more is just a little extra safety net.

I have never owned a car or truck that didn't have at least 3 gallons in it when my gauge read empty. And that includes Broncos, at least until I tweaked the factory senders to read a different range. My current DD usually has about 5 gallons left, out of only 18 when the warning light comes on.

But I digress... That's doesn't really pertain yet to your issue, of not reading full.
The only thing I can think of is that it was either messed around with in shipping, or just as likely, we messed up setting it up originally.
Like I said, we do measure ohms and adjust the stops if needed, but we don't turn tanks turtle to check for a full reading.

I'll get with the guys tomorrow and talk about the problem. Sorry that doesn't fix yours, but it's a start at our end.
However, if you're at the point where you're going to call and "...flip the F---k out..." and if you'd rather return it, we can probably work that out too.
Not sure how to ship something that already had gas in it, but there's probably a way to clear it out enough to make that work.

Paul

Hi Paul, I was not trying to say WH was doing anything wrong or using the wrong parts. I assumed your people turned the tanks over after install. The reason we do is to be sure the send does not get hung up on anything like wires or hoses inside the tank. We used a sample(cutaway) tank to set the travel of the float to get very near the top and bottom limits, I think we sent you a sample so your float stroke should be fine. You don't want the float to hit the bottom or top because the float will get damaged. And you are right about the linier senders being correct at near full and near empty. We had some complaints about the mid range being off and was having trouble getting senders at all so while we were having them made anyway we made them non-linier to closer match the stock gauge. I believe the linier senders are fine as the important part is near empty to me. The range of the earlier ford is poor at best and the reason no one uses it any more. A range of 10-70 ohms and 5 volts dc is too susceptible to being off with a small amount of ohm change. GM uses a 33- 270 if I recall correctly.

No worries Chuck. Didn't take it that way at all. Appreciated your input on this too, since I haven't had a chance to play around with one of your non-linear ones. Hope to get to do that.
I don't know if we have a cutaway (would be great!) but I know that, while different people have set them up in our shop over the years, we pretty much have only one guy doing it which should help consistency. He and I talk about setup often, because I like to know what goes on and to make sure we at least think we're doing it right.
I'll have to ask him if he actually does flip them over and I just didn't know it. But I'm betting not.

Thanks for the info for sure.

Paul

I think chuck is onto something, most of us that swap to an aftermarket gauge normally swap to the Gm sender as well, because it's more reliable.
I wonder if classy chassis can swap out the stock fuel gauge guts to run the GM sender?

Also, to the OP, check your grounds, and give the sender it's own ground.