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Re: fuel sender rewinding...loooong! Posted by JohnT [Email] (#1654) [Profile/Gallery] (more from JohnT) on Fri, 5 Jan 2007 16:30:06 In Reply to: fuel sender rewinding, DougM [Profile/Gallery] , Fri, 5 Jan 2007 11:37:00 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
OK, here goes...
My fuel senders didn't look quite like that. They both looked like the picture below. They were both from 1980 models, one a 99 and one a 900. According to my literature, this sender was used from 1980 on, although I think they changed again fairly quickly...not sure when. I have a feeling that the windings and overall resistance would be the same as the earlier senders so they would work with the same instrument panel gauge. If you count 104 windings then they probably even used the same resistance wire.
What happens when the sender goes bad is that the moving contact that is attached to the float arm, and that rubs on the coil of resistance wire, eventually wears through the wire.
The wire I used was Nichrome resistance wire that I got from MWS Wire Industries.
http://www.mwswire.com/resist1.htm
I got two different sizes because the wire that I measured from the sender fell in between the two (probably a European metric size). The two I got were:
MWS 650 - 35 gauge (B&S), .0056" dia. - 20.72 ohms per foot
MWS 800 - 34 gauge (B&S), .0063" dia. - 20.16 ohms per foot
1980 99: Looking back at my notes, I counted 4 windings in the necked down area near the input wire, 104 windings in the main coil area, and 3 windings in the necked down area at the end opposite the input wire.
1980 900: 4 windings in necked down area near input wire, 112 windings in main coil, 3 windings in necked down area at far end.
If someone wanted to measure the current necessary to make the fuel gauge work correctly, they could come up with the exact length of resistance wire needed. I didn't do that.
I did each sender a little differently. One sender I used 112 windings with the larger size wire (34 gauge, larger diameter means less resistance, so more windings necessary). The other I used 104 windings with the smaller size wire (35 gauge, smaller diameter, fewer windings).
The one with the smaller wire worked best. I still have the car and it still works great.
I seem to remember paying $60-80 for 200 ft of wire total. (So I have plenty left!) If anyone needs some, send me a private email. It takes about 12.5 ft of wire and I can send it in a regular mailing envelope. (No charge, but contributions accepted!)
There is a series of 21 photos showing how to rewind the sender on my "web site" if you can call it that. Go to this URL:
http://webpages.charter.net/jtyrer999/fuel%20sender/fuelsend1.jpg
You can see all the photos by replacing "/fuelsend1.jpg" with "/fuelsend2.jpg", "/fuelsend3.jpg" etc. in the address bar.
I can upload photos and stuff to my "web site" but haven't taken the time to make a real web page with instructions. Can anyone recommend a good open source web page design program?
posted by 68.189.173...
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