The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Different approach to fuel level sender...

I received the fuel level sender I ordered from China yesterday and it is interesting. It seems to be made of non magnetic stainless steel, welded and made nicely and comes with a gasket and screws. You can see some images below. As soon as possible I'll try it in the tank. A couple of observations: Just like the one I made of this same style the resistance change isn't really a smooth sweep. I tried to make it smooth however I could not incorporate enough reed switches nor enough resistors in the central tube and I suspect the man in China had the same limitation. It starts at 30 ohms (full) and then works its way to empty in stages (to 0 ohms at empty). It should register empty with still about 1.5 to 2 inches of fuel left in the tank so you won't just hit empty and be stranded. The reason this is so is that just like the senders used in today's fuel tanks magnets and magnetic reed switches are used to register levels. So, the upshot is I expect this sender to work well and to be very durable since the reed switches will be kept dry at all times. I expect the vertical travel of the float to be both predictable and free from any sort of obstructions/problems. And I think once I get used to the way the needle travels (in steps), it should be okay. The sender was $30 USD plus about $8 USD to ship plus sales tax.

edit...the one I got was 260mm in length