Fuel tank installation continued:
With the sending unit installed some info about how it works.
In this picture you can see the float attached to the sending body. Within the sending body is a variable resistor. As the float rises and falls in the tank with the liquid level it changes the resistance value. The wires from the sending body connect to the two terminals on the top of the cover plate.
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Here is the box the sending unit came in.
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The check mark next to "10-180 ohms" shows the upper and lower limits on this particular sending unit model.
The resistance value should be 10 ohms with the tank empty and 180 ohms with the tank full. You can buy stock fuel gauges that correspond with these values. I'm going to go a different route for a fuel gauge so I need to take some measurements.
Move the fuel tank over to washing machine next to the utility sink. Hook up the probes from my voltmeter to the electrical connections on the top of the sending unit cover plate.
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With the tank empty the sending unit returns a value of 8.8 ohms.
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Since the fuel inlet is on the side I'd roll the tank over to pour in water. Used a milk jug as my gallon measure.
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By the way, the top of the washer looks like it does because it's next to the utility sink so paint brushes and such get placed there while waiting to be cleaned. I like to think of it as my on little piece of abstract art.
After adding each gallon of water I'd roll the tank back and straighten it up with a level.
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So I added one gallon of water at a time and took a new reading with each one.
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Here's the results.
Gals - Ohms
1 - 30
2 - 67
3 - 101
4 - 125
5 - 143
Once I poured in 5 gallons and leveled up the tank the water was just even with the bottom edge of the fuel inlet.
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Dumped the water into the washer and moved the tank back to the workbench. Added a couple ring terminals and shrink tubing to a dual length of wire. Attached this to the cover plate terminals. With a resistance reading there is no positive or negative so don't have to worry about which wire is which.
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You can tell that the gasket sealant is still a little tacky.
continued -