What Sending unit for a custom 23 gallon fuel tank ?

[casadejohnson]

I was talking to a friend of mine who is a welder / fabricator about the possibility of building a new larger main fuel tank vs. buying one. I showed him the plans posted in a previous thread and he is convinced he can build it for much less than the cost of buying one. He has actually agreed to build it for me for free, all I have to do is supply the sending unit so he can build the tank to fit the sending unit. He agreed to do it for free for two reasons, 1) He owes me more than a few favors, and 2) Depending on how easy or hard he finds it to be he may consider building more tanks and selling them to make a few bucks. He is a certified welder and has built fuel tanks before for race cars that have no gauge and needed no sending unit. I was looking for a good sending unit candidate but I'm not sure what I need. Any ideas? Anyone done this already and know a good sending unit to use? I was looking in my summit catalog and they sell a universal unit. Don't I need a sending unit with a specific Ohms range? I read that different manufactures use different ranges so all sending units won't necessarily work with all gauges. Can anyone verify this? I was thinking I would try to find a vehicle with a stock tank of about the same depth as my new tank and use that. (New of course) Would that be the best way to go or should I just pick a universal sending unit?

 

[dpmerrill]

You need a sending unit that reads about 73 ohms empty and about 10 ohms full to work with your factory gauge.

Item #10213 at Jeff's Bronco Graveyard works well for the other 23 gallon tanks. As long as your new tank is about the same height from the sending unit mounting hole to the bottom of the tank, that one would work fine.

 

[broncnaz]

I dont have the P/N but the universal sending unit (autogauge??)that most autoparts store sell will work I replaced the sending unit in my 23 gal tank and it worked perfectly not sure about the ohms but I thought it needed to range from 10-33 ohms have to look it up again.

 

[casadejohnson]

Do you remember what it cost or what parts store you went to?

 

[broncnaz]

I believe it was only about $15 and the ohms range you need is 10-78 ohms. I think I got it at pep boys but I've seen them at autozone also. you can order them from JC whitney also.

 

[casadejohnson]

Very cool! Thanks for the information!

 

[psbronco]

Sunpro Unit

I just bought a Sunpro universial sending unit from Summit Racing for about $15 for my custom tank. The part number is SUN-CP7583 from their website, it is fully adjustable for the depth of your tank. It seems to be a pretty good unit, comes with a cork gasket and 5 mounting screws. It was simple to mount. However it does work on 240-33 ohm, so it won't work with the stock gauge. But I found that auto meter makes plenty of gauges that will work.