Adding a fuel gauge sending unit to a gas tank
Posted: Tue Aug 13, 2019 10:53 am
Hi all!
I have a fuel tank that I wanted to add a fuel gauge to. The tank isn't really "portable" but it's not a permanent one either, not sure what you call it but either way I have noway of knowing how much gas is in it.
So this is what I did:
Went online and looked at the different kinds of universal sending units. I knew the ones with the arm that you have to adjust would be very difficult for my application so I settled on a vertical one from KUS (was WEMA USA). Measured the tank height and got a unit that was an inch shorter per their instructions. Just a note: the sending unit came with a cork washer but I opted to buy a kit that had this rubber washer instead. I drained the gas that was in the tank, washed out the tank to get rid of any crud, and let it dry. I blew out the pickup tube and took a towel and wiped down the inside of the tank the best I could to make sure there wasn't any junk in there.
I grabbed my hole saw and cut an opening on the top: Then using a pencil I marked the screw hole locations and grabbed a small bit. Now the sending unit is designed to be screwed into an existing housing that has nuts for the screws to hold on to but in this case there are no nuts. So I used a small drill bit, smaller than the bolts, then took a slightly bigger drill bit and just barely opened up the screw hole at the top just to get the bolt started. Once all the drilling was done I grabbed my vacuum and air blower and got whatever pieces may have fallen into the tank. Once i got all the parts together and installed it looks really good and there is a tight seal....kinda important. I am waiting for the fuel gauge to get here but I checked with a meter that the sending unit is giving me resistance readings like it should.
Nothing too fancy but a simple thing that many people can do.
I have a fuel tank that I wanted to add a fuel gauge to. The tank isn't really "portable" but it's not a permanent one either, not sure what you call it but either way I have noway of knowing how much gas is in it.
So this is what I did:
Went online and looked at the different kinds of universal sending units. I knew the ones with the arm that you have to adjust would be very difficult for my application so I settled on a vertical one from KUS (was WEMA USA). Measured the tank height and got a unit that was an inch shorter per their instructions. Just a note: the sending unit came with a cork washer but I opted to buy a kit that had this rubber washer instead. I drained the gas that was in the tank, washed out the tank to get rid of any crud, and let it dry. I blew out the pickup tube and took a towel and wiped down the inside of the tank the best I could to make sure there wasn't any junk in there.
I grabbed my hole saw and cut an opening on the top: Then using a pencil I marked the screw hole locations and grabbed a small bit. Now the sending unit is designed to be screwed into an existing housing that has nuts for the screws to hold on to but in this case there are no nuts. So I used a small drill bit, smaller than the bolts, then took a slightly bigger drill bit and just barely opened up the screw hole at the top just to get the bolt started. Once all the drilling was done I grabbed my vacuum and air blower and got whatever pieces may have fallen into the tank. Once i got all the parts together and installed it looks really good and there is a tight seal....kinda important. I am waiting for the fuel gauge to get here but I checked with a meter that the sending unit is giving me resistance readings like it should.
Nothing too fancy but a simple thing that many people can do.