I needed the ‘Bird warmed up this morning to check the settings on the carb, so I took her for a spin out on the open freeway. (Something I rarely do.) She’s been running so well, I took the opportunity to open her up. I was pleased to discover that there’s still some kick to her; we cruised along with traffic for 10 miles or so before (reluctantly) heading home.
The tuning wasn’t off by much, so I was quickly on to the main event of the day: replacing the fuel gauge sender. With the back of the car up on ramps, I crawled underneath, camera and tools in hand.
The sending unit sits about half-way up the tank. I figured the tank was less than half full, but had no way of knowing for sure. The old unit came out easily, and it was not followed by gallons of fuel, which was a good thing. The most difficult part was getting the old fuel line off–it was held on by the original crimp-on style clamp.
The float on the old unit was full of gas, which was probably part (if not all) of the problem. I could have just changed the float, but I had a brand new unit (with an in-tank filter) that seemed more like a sure bet.
A while back, I replaced the sender for the oil pressure gauge with no success, so there was no telling if the fuel gauge was still good. But with the key on, the gas gauge went right up to 1/3 full! Nice.
Of course, I made a complete photojournal of the project.