The museum I work at has a 1949 Chev 6400 flatbed dump (my "company car") which we use daily around our park and to haul just about anything you can imagine. A couple weeks ago it began giving us grief and after plenty of diagnosis, I've determined that the troubles are due to excessive sediment and rust build up in the bottom of the tank. I've pulled the tank and will be thoroughly cleaning it out this week.

My question is in regards to the fuel gauge sending unit and whether anyone has had experience converting to a unit from the 1954 to 59 cab mounted tanks. Our truck's sending unit is rusted solid so I'm looking to replace it (plus it would be a new luxury to actually know how much gas is in the tank!) The Filling Station sells this model and claims that it fits the 49-53 trucks so long as you plug the inlet on top of the sender. I was thinking that by routing a new line from this newer sending unit to the fuel pump and then plugging the bottom of my tank, I might be able to get better reliability in the long term since I'd be siphoning gas up rather than having it feed directly from the bottom of the tank along with any future sediment/rust.

Any problems I might encounter in making this swap? Is the geometry of the 54-59 fuel pick up compatible with the shape of my 49 tank? Is my 216's fuel pump capable of pulling fuel in this new configuration? I haven't ordered the sending unit yet and wanted to get some feedback from anyone who has more experience with this. Thanks in advance for any help.

1935 Chevrolet 1.5-ton
1963 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 2-door
1965 **** F-250
1980 "Honda-Davidson" CB-750 Custom
1989 BMW 325i Convertible (wife's car)