Installing TANKS INC Floatless Fuel Sending Unit

In any classic cars fuel tank, you’ll find a sending unit for the fuel gauge. They all work the same basic way, a float attached to a resistance mechanism that gives the gauge an OHM reading to provide you with a fuel reading.

When upgrading to a modern fuel injection tank, the sending units are often universal. You have to measure, cut the arm and then try to get it in the tank. It’s a bit of a pain and TANKS INC re-invented the wheel with their floatless fuel sending units. “The beauty of these is they are a drop-in unit. There’s no figuring out the arm and float, you really can’t screw it up. Even if you wire it backwards, it still works,” explained Justin Somerville of TANKS INC.

Besides the ease of installation, there’s a few other upgrades as well. The float is now inside the tube which has a few holes to allow fuel in and out. Essentially it acts as a baffled fuel sending unit, allowing for more accurate readings as fuel can’t slosh to and from the sending unit as fast as a traditional unit. There’s no moving parts to break or wear out as well and it uses the industry standard 5-bolt hole.

In our Project No-Name ’66 Chevelle, we had the old style sending unit. It had worked great, until it didn’t. We verified the wiring and gauge were correct and working, showing us that we had to do the dreaded job of dropping the tank. Naturally this happened with a full tank of fuel making the job a little less fun. Instead of putting in an old style unit, we decided to try out one of these new ones from TANKS INC to see how they worked.

Drop The Tank

Our first step was to disconnect the wires and a few clamps to allow our fuel lines to drop with the tank. Then we put a floor jack under the tank and unbolted the two straps holding the tank into place. From here we wiped down the top of the tank to help ensure dirt and debris didn’t drop into the tank. Then we unbolted the old unit and attempted to slide it out of place. We remembered that you have to remove the arm to get the unit in and out of tank, but naturally we dropped the arm in the tank. After going fishin’ with a magnet we retrieved the arm. Another reason to upgrade!

The new unit simply dropped in the hole and used the supplied gasket and bolts to secure it down. We then connected the two wires, lifted the tank back into place and secured everything back into place. All in all the job took a little over an hour and that was because we had a full tank of fuel to fight.

These sending units are available in different lengths depending on the depth of your tank. They are available in different OHMs reading for all your Ford, GM, and Mopar applications along with aftermarket applications. Overall we are happy we made the upgrade and now we have a proper working fuel gauge!

For more information or to order yours, hop on www.TanksInc.com or give them a call at (877) 596-3842