The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Sending Unit Resistance

Can anyone tell me what the ohm range is for 40's era gas tank sending units? I'm getting ready to ship mine out for a rebuild but one of the questions the rebuilder asked is how many ohms the sender is.

-Mike-

all early senders are 30 ohms, if the guy knows anything about gas tanks he should know that .... no need for him to do anything about the sender and charge you a markup on a part you can get from a vendor, or from a local auto parts house [generic style]

Bill

Thanks for that information. My gas tank is a rare military version that is much taller than it is wide. I tried one of the offshore generic units but it couldn't be made to work for what I have. My best hope is to get the original rebuilt. Knowing that it is a 30 ohm system will help.

-Mike-

The universal sending unit I bought from Chevs of the 40s was made to work in a wide variety of tanks with some easy adjustment. Since your tank is tall and narrow I'm assuming the float pointed toward the narrow side?

Yes the unit is mounted on the top and points to the narrow side at half full and when fully extended is probably about 30" or more long. Most G506's used the same tank in a horizontal position and used a shorter sender mine is a rarer earth auger/pole setter truck made for the signal corps and the tank was mounted vertically in the utility bed.

-Mike-

can't see why a universal sender like this won't fit, they're adjustable for tank depth and work with very small to very large tanks

Bill

If it's a narrow tank and the float points toward the side there may not be enough clearance between the sending unit and the side of the tank to allow the float arm to travel the full distance. I'm assuming that's the problem sleeve is having. If that is the case the sending unit could probably be turned 90 deg. but that would require some hole filling, re-drilling and tapping since the unit only mounts one way. The other side of that coin is I don't see how the original would work either unless it's made to allow the float arm to travel in the wide portion of the tank. You have any pics sleeve?

I've bought one universal type already and frankly it is a cheap not so great part. It didn't quite have enough length, gives eratic readings (with a good gauge and ground) and overall is poorly made compared to the original. While the one shown in link maybe a different brand I'm a little gun shy when it comes to buying another universal type and feel I'd like to go the rebuild route with NOS parts. The original fits well in the tank and does not hang up and has a very long throw to its action.

-Mike-

I'm a believer in reusing the OEM parts when you can, mainly because of the quality issues with many chinese repop parts. I had reasonable good luck with the universal I had although I did have a hoop or two I had to jump through. I found to good used units on ebay and all is well now plus I have an extra.