Huw
Club Member
Just thought I would pass this on.
I have an early 280ZX and experienced problems with the fuel gauge ever since putting the car back together. It turned out to be the fuel sender not the gauge. The gauge would display a reading then it would drop to zero intermittently. On investigation the yellow wire coming from the connector on the top of the sender was loose. I tried to fix this but the connector terminal is pressed into the top of the sender, corrosion had destroyed it completely.
Due to the lack of new or even good quality second hand units for early cars like mine, I found it is possible to replace the sender unit with a unit from a later model (82 onwards). The later sender units would appear to be still available. The two are very different however, the later unit has a float that travels up and down a plastic tube whereas the earlier type has a float on an arm that moves a copper wiper over an exposed wire coil.
To make the swap you need to remove the swirl pot in the base of the tank. Easy to do once the sender is out, just reach in grab the swirl pot in the base of the tank and pull very hard. It’s held in with two metal tabs, these will need to be bent flush with the bottom of the tank otherwise they will foul on the new sender. This is all lots of fun it you still have fuel in the tank like I did (not advisable), I would suggest draining it first.
The new unit seems to read about right. I know I had 10 litres in the tank when I did the swap and the gauge indicated just under an eighth of a tank. I added a further 10 litres and the gauge read just under a quarter full. Added bonus was a working fuel warning light also. On a road test the gauge reading remained steady, I’ve not tested it with a full tank yet but any variation can be removed by adding a potentiometer in line with the gauge.
Hope this helps fellow 280ZX owners with a dodgy fuel gauge.
Huw
I have an early 280ZX and experienced problems with the fuel gauge ever since putting the car back together. It turned out to be the fuel sender not the gauge. The gauge would display a reading then it would drop to zero intermittently. On investigation the yellow wire coming from the connector on the top of the sender was loose. I tried to fix this but the connector terminal is pressed into the top of the sender, corrosion had destroyed it completely.
Due to the lack of new or even good quality second hand units for early cars like mine, I found it is possible to replace the sender unit with a unit from a later model (82 onwards). The later sender units would appear to be still available. The two are very different however, the later unit has a float that travels up and down a plastic tube whereas the earlier type has a float on an arm that moves a copper wiper over an exposed wire coil.
To make the swap you need to remove the swirl pot in the base of the tank. Easy to do once the sender is out, just reach in grab the swirl pot in the base of the tank and pull very hard. It’s held in with two metal tabs, these will need to be bent flush with the bottom of the tank otherwise they will foul on the new sender. This is all lots of fun it you still have fuel in the tank like I did (not advisable), I would suggest draining it first.
The new unit seems to read about right. I know I had 10 litres in the tank when I did the swap and the gauge indicated just under an eighth of a tank. I added a further 10 litres and the gauge read just under a quarter full. Added bonus was a working fuel warning light also. On a road test the gauge reading remained steady, I’ve not tested it with a full tank yet but any variation can be removed by adding a potentiometer in line with the gauge.
Hope this helps fellow 280ZX owners with a dodgy fuel gauge.
Huw
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