Fuel sensor for a 15 galon tank.

What is anyone using for a fuel level sensor in the large 15 gallon tanks? I am using a bent sensor from the smaller tank. It works, but it hasn't stopped bouncing (plus or minus 1/8 tank) since I installed it a few years ago. At this rate I expect immenient failure. An internet search has turned up nothing, even from suppliers of the oversize tanks. Thanks in advance.

General interest note: With the large tank, and the filler cap pocking up through my trunk inner liner, I had limited room for install of the air vent tube. I finally got rid of the "full tank gas fumes blues", by extending the vent tube from the inner fender well to a location below the chassis pan. No more gas fumes.

Dave:

Don't worry about the bouncing of the gas sending unit - they all do that, even in "newer" cars and they tend to last forever. The difference is that non-bouncing gauges (in the dash, not the sending unit) either have mechanical damping movements on the gauge needle or a damping circuit that smoothes out the sender bouncing by averaging the signal it gets and responding much slower. That's why many cars' gas gauges (my wife's Honda, especially) take a while to go from empty to full when you re-fill the tank, especially if you've left the key on while filling.

VW gauges used to have a little smoother that looked like a small circuit breaker about an inch long and connected between the sender wire and the input lead to the gas gauge and grounded to the gauge case. I have one, but I never even tried it on my Brazilian repro gauge to see if it worked.

Anybody ever tried using one of those VW gas gauge dampers on Repro gauges????

On a different sender for the larger tanks - most I've seen simply use the smaller tank sender, but bent down a bit to work in a deeper tank.

Gordon

Thanks Gordon. Now, what the heck is a "fuel vibrator" I see in the ads and catalogs?
(Can't wait to see the creative responses I get to this one)!

When used with a standard VW Bug gauge, the vibrator meters or "vibrates" voltage to the gauge, giving the needle a dampened effect. I bought one a while back to experiment with. I, though, have 914 gauges. The vibrator only reduced the wagging maybe half in my case. This device plugs in line in the 12v. power lead, not the sending unit line. I don't know how a brazilian would act.

BD

Yup, Bill's describing the same thing I am. I was in error in telling how to connect it, and Bill's right - it went in the +12V line as it connected to the gauge (I had to drag out my donor gauge and look at it to be sure - Thanks Bill!

I made the same assumption that it went in the sender lead in the beginning. When connected this way, the gauge reading went from 1/4 to 3/4. So following the old adage "when all else fails, follow the directions", I checked the drawings and saw that it went in the 12v. line. I was hoping for a better result though, it only reduced the wagging.

BD

Thanks guys, guess I will stay with "follow the bouncing ball". Hey, does anyone remember when you went to the movies and they used to have a sing-a-long? They showed the words on the movie screen and by following the bouncing ball, the whole audience used to sing the songs. No? Just a senior moment, sorry for that.