FUEL FLOAT - Do as I say, NOT as I do

[Mos68x]

Y'all got yer beer? Ready for a show?!

Yeah I got a little crazy besides being really cheap lol.

I ran out of fuel last yesterday while I was going home. When it finally rolled to a stop I was about a mile from home. Of course I hoofed it and immediately went about planning how I was to procure some fuel so I could at least get into town to fill the tank. Today I decided to address the cause of why my fuel gauge hasn't been working. I pulled out the sender unit to see if the float had turned into a sink. Yup! I may have other issues, such as a bad ground, faulty connectors, or a faulty fuel gauge, but this will be one problem solved shortly.

Of course, being cheap since I am broke until the 1st, I decided to get the fuel out of the brass float instead of trying to replace it.

A few minutes later it popped open and burned the fuel that was left inside.

Now I can safely take the torch to it and tin the entire outside of the float and solder it back together. I wanted it apart but I didn't want to use the torch as that would put me right next to it instead of at a safe distance. If it were gasoline on the inside I certainly NOT have done this. At least with diesel it wouldn't reach pressures to truly become destructive.

 

[simp5782]

Fuel gauges do not read properly even with a new sender, gauge, and wires. Never trust the gauges. Know how many hours or how many miles you can go.

300 to 360 is a good mid range number.

My truck just by itself at 58/62 is 580 to 600 miles a tank burning 64 gallons out of the main tank. Towing trailer empty is 410mi tank. 55k to 70k is 360mi a tank. Or roughly 12hrs of drive/engine time

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

 

[doghead]

The float could have created enough pressure to "blow" even if it had water in it.

I usually just drill a small hole in one to drain it, then resolder as needed. Much easier.

 

[Mos68x]

Fuel gauges do not read properly even with a new sender, gauge, and wires. Never trust the gauges. Know how many hours or how many miles you can go.

300 to 360 is a good mid range number.

My truck just by itself at 58/62 is 580 to 600 miles a tank burning 64 gallons out of the main tank. Towing trailer empty is 410mi tank. 55k to 70k is 360mi a tank. Or roughly 12hrs of drive/engine time

I usually figure about 200-250 miles, however I've done A LOT if 1500rpm idle time in the last couple weeks since I got the truck home just dealing with these tires. Only have two left to fix now, but I think I ended up using 6hrs or so on the hour meter since I remember last looking at it and I'm sure that was while I was doing tire work. I know that really threw a wrench in my mileage figure since I'm only at about 180-200 miles. And yes, I forgot to check the fuel level periodically, but I didn't think it would use that much fuel. Oh well, lesson learned. I do have the stick in the truck I just hardly ever use it since I normally go off my trip odometer on my phone's GPS speedometer.

The float could have created enough pressure to "blow" even if it had water in it.

I usually just drill a small hole in one to drain it, then resolder as needed. Much easier.

Not before the solder melted and released the pressure, which I knew wouldn't take long at all. My float wasn't full of fuel, but just enough to not make it float. If it had been full of fuel then I would've had to drill it since the fuel would've acted as a heat sink and prevented the solder from reaching tempurature and melting. I might've considered using a drill not...but I've seemed to have lost all my tiny ones and this definitely sounded like a more fun and definitely risky way to get the job done lol

 

[BEASTMASTER]

I've been using 26 inches of broom handle for years and it never lies to me.

 

[Cape Coastie]

Hey Mos68x, I had the exact same thing happen to my fuel float. Had a small crack in it. I happened to have a couple of wine corks laying around and a lot of the old cars I have had used cork floats. So I just zip tied one of them to the gauge ring and it works pretty good. I have been told that Summit racing has plastic replacement floats that are the same size as the brass ones. My cork has been in the tank for a year and a half and still is working. I also have a gauge stick in the truck just in case.

 

[BenRoberts]

I bought a new float for my sending unit. At the time it was $5 at summit racing. Exact match

 

[BenRoberts]

https://m.summitracing.com/parts/sd...-scott-drake&gclid=CMHezLOEj9QCFd22wAodoCgCjQ

 

[Mos68x]

A little gentle time on the bench wire wheel and they're nice and clean, ready for some flux and solder. Found where my current leak is and an old crack as well, I'll solder up both and then solder the halves together. Hopefully that'll be tonight, but it might be tomorrow.

Edit:words on me

 

[wreckerman893]

The only thing that lies more convincingly than a career politician is a military vehicle fuel gauge.

 

[Mos68x]

Got it soldered up, it's a bit ugly but it'll be functional until I find that plastic one y'all are talkin bout.



Got it in a vinegar bath right now, just enough to cover the part that is the variable resistor, the part that makes it all work.



This part started comin clean after only about an hour. The rust on it isn't bad, so I'm only going to let it soak for another hour or two before I take it out and take a toothbrush to it to clean it off. I did test the sender last night with the ground strap clipped to it with vise grips and the gauge worked, maybe not accurately but it did work. I'll check accuracy later with a stick.

 

[Mos68x]

https://m.summitracing.com/parts/omx-1772901

Is that the one? The brass one shied an 1.25"OD and the groove is 1", but the plastic one doesn't show dimensions at all.

 

[Mos68x]

Had to cut a new gasket out of some 1/8" clear PVC vinyl I had laying around from an old project years ago since the old one was trashed, but I did get the sender cleaned up best I could and reinstalled it. At least now it reads a little over 1/2 tank instead perpetually on E.



I do need to replace the screws but I want to change them to hex head bolts or cap screws since I stripped out one of the screws trying to remove it. These are #10-32 screws right? I thought I had some but it seems all I had on hand were #8-32 bolts, threads looked like they matched up but I'm not 100% sure.

EDIT: Looks like someone didn't like the title and renamed it, oh well. I just wanted to make sure y'all knew it wasn't the safest way to tackle the issue.