As a winter job, I am thinking of attempting to cut a hole to access the fuel sender to try to cure my none working gauge issues.. I have the panel but, not sure how to go about cutting the hole safely. Any ideas?
You can use a jigsaw, there is more of a gap between the panel and the tank than you might think - just be aware of fuel sender wires
There are different quality ones. I’ve done sunroof cuts with them in the past. They reduce the fire risk. You’ve got to be really careful next to fuel tanks. These vans always have perished vent pipes and the tank is in a confined space…
If you take off the firewall and let it vent for a while it reduces the risk of there being an inflammable fuel/air mix.. In which case you can in principle can get at it without cutting a hole.
nope. i`d have to take the petrol tank out to get at mine if i dont cut a hole. there isnt enough room to physically fit my hand between the structure of the bus and the tank. i dont have gorilla hands either. I`m going for the angle grinder approach - i know my breathers are ok though.
If you've got the firewall off, you can swap the sender. It's a quarter turn bayonet fitting and can be tight but it can be done. You don't need the tank out. It's a bit of a pain mind so I can see why people want to hack holes in the floor, especially with a type 1 engine, but I've managed to get into my sender four times in different buses without cutting.
I did have to push down the breather pipes to get in there. Exactly central the tank has the dip for the sender that lets you put your hand in then bend your fingers. I do have to wear XL rubber gloves so my hands arent exactly small. I can just touch the panel in front of the tank with my finger tips. I knew it was possible because SGS Aircooled changed my sender without cutting metal as about the first thing done to my bus.
i could not even touch my sender when i was rummaging the other day?? i could barely get my hand in far enough to get my fingers halfway across the tank. Not that it matters but i defo could not change the sender. one of my kids might i suppose
I did manage to detach one from the tank, but no way was it wriggling out of there. I used to be against cutting a sender access, but now I'm all for it!
It is a later tank as the back end of my October 1973 bus is definitely late, even if the steering column is early .. On mine there is just room for the top of the sender to slide across the front of the tank. It wont come straight back out .
The new sender has a linear pitch of winding of the resistance - the old one had three different pitches , effectively changing reading faster near empty than near full... so I will have to re-learn the calibration.. Sliding sender out to the side, observe PO screw-of-concern above .. Old sender with temporary 1mm paper gasket above, new with 3mm cork and rubber cut out of a sheet. Hand wedged in for access... Its in ! DC resistance is 20 ohms to ground with a tank that is about 15 litres down from full. (Membury Services to home)
