For some reason, I used another host for the pics and they are no longer showing up - so lets use PIP:

As you may, or may not have known, the sending unit in my 88GT was toast and the "fix" that was listed for it by others here on the board didn’t for some reason work w/ mine, so I was forced to see what else was available for it.

Anyhoo, I talked w/ Summit Racing, and stated that I needed the o - 9o Ohm sending unit, and they suggested that I get the VDO unit that they sell for 29.99. Pt# 226 oo8D

Here's what came in the mail:


Once I received it, I went to work and as you can see, I completely removed the original sending unit, the handle, and all that is assorted with it all together. This is necessary to get the new VDO unit in it's place.



I had to bend the bracket that the VDO sending unit rests on, being that the way that this is set, you have to have it pointed to the front of the car. In the tank, there is what looks like a plastic baffle that is directly in the way of the movement of the armature and will cause you to not get the correct reading in the gauge.

I didn’t take any pics of the bent material, but as you can see installed on the original equipment, it's a pretty good double bend, so that you can swing the new unit out and around the fuel pump and the pulsator.

Here is the best pic that I took of it than you can see the angle in which the VDO bracket is bent to clear the obstructions:








With the unit now bent, you are going to re-drill the holes that are going to mount the actual sending unit to the bracket, and install. Place the bracket on the original equipment, and using the supplied nuts and bolts.

**NOTE**
With this unit, and the fact that the measured height of the tank at the top is 10", you are going to need to make sure that the pivot point of the new sending unit, where the arm rotates, is 5" from the top of the tank.

Set the new length that is listed in the instruction manual for the floater, test when hooked up to your gauge, and then reinstall into the tank.

I did notice that I was not able to get o Ohms when I hooked it up to the Fluke, ( 5.2 was the lowest ) so when installed into the car, I didn’t get all the way to the "E" It was ½ a line away from the "E" and I figured that if I was that low anyhow, I knew that I was about to get out and start to "hoof it" anyhow…

Sorry I didn’t get a step by step account, but w/ the old out, the new in your hand you should be able to get the "jist" of what needs to be done.

Enjoy;

--Allen

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** Rice; it's what's COOKIN **

[This message has been edited by mcaanda (edited 11-25-2006).]

Allen, Thank-You for taking the extra time to repost with pics---I have some work to do the correct way now.... Will be calling Summit Racing...

Thanks Allen. How did you deal with wiring? Does the stock wires connect right to the new aftermarket sender?

quote Originally posted by topcat: Thanks Allen. How did you deal with wiring? Does the stock wires connect right to the new aftermarket sender?

If I remember correctly yes it did. There might have been an issue w/ a ground, but that is easily fixed w/ the wire tied to the unit itself.

--Allen

Summit no longer carries the 226-008D part, but they have this one. I take it this is the same part, but costs have gone up.

quote Originally posted by topcat: Summit no longer carries the 226-008D part, but they have this one. I take it this is the same part, but costs have gone up.

That be the one - & yea; I guess inflation hit Summit as well.

--Allen

have you checked to see if this new sending unit fixed the problem that the previous unit had (incorrect amount of gas on tank)?

quote Originally posted by PRFiero: have you checked to see if this new sending unit fixed the problem that the previous unit had (incorrect amount of gas on tank)?

Problem solved.

Summit is FAST. My sending unit arrived yesterday. It is going on a jacks Friday.

Ughhh! I dropped my tank today, and it seems that if it could have went wrong, it did. First the aft tank strap T-bolt decided that it did not want to come loose. After soaking it for about two hours with PB blaster, I torqued on it, and the damned thing pulled right out of it's mount on the frame on the car. So off to the junk yard to get a new strap and T-bolt. The owner gave them to me free of charge. Then I got a call from work on the way back to the house, and was diverted to the office for a couple of hours.

Back to installing the sending unit. The bracket that the sender mounts to has to be bent just right. Bend it too much, and it will not fit back in the tank. If you do not bend it enough, it will not clear the pump... so trial and error was the order of the day, and after about four tries, I got it right. Put it all back together, and the hoses were being a BEAR to get back on. Finally some six hours after starting the tank is back in, hoses tight, connector installed, battery connected, ignition on... no leaks, so that is a good thing. Then the momment of truth. The gauge reads half a gallon... which is about right. I will top it off tomorrow to see how accurate it is.

BTW, before the "fix" I never read less than 5 gallons. I am hopeful that this will solve my inaccurate reading. I am tired of using the odemeter to guess when it is time to fill up.

BTW, I have a digital fuel gauge... that is how I know the gauge read .5 gallons.

If I could give you another plus, I would.

Okay, how about an update. The aftermarket fuel sender worked fine for about a week... then I noticed it would never read less than 7 gallons. I went to top the tank off and sure enough, the car took six gallons to fill. And when it was all the way full, a huge flow of gasoline came from under the car.

D@MN

So after hosing the underside of the car off real good, I turned the key on and there were no leaks, so I could only assume that the o ring for the sending unit/pump assembly was pinched and leaking.

I had store credit with the Fiero Store, so I ordered a new sending unit that was made specifically for the Fiero. Once it arrived and had time to work on it, I siphoned all the gas out of the tank, and dropped it. The aftermarket sender's float was hung up on the wire harness so it would not go full travel, but since I had a new one, in it went, and out came the aftermarket unit. The fit of the new unit is tight, but no problems getting it in. Filled the tank up, and so far so good. I am still on the first tank of gas, but it is nice to see the gauge actually read right.

If someone wants to buy my aftermarket one, it will be posted in the mall in the next day or so... when I have time to take pics of it.

So how do you like it???
What was the price of the sending unit???

tim

So far so good. The sending unit is a replica of the original OEM sending unit. It looks to be of better quality than the original sending unit. It does not have the rheostat type of mechanism. The Fiero Store part cost 190.00 dollars, but I had over 120.00 dollars in store credit from turning in brake parts.

Are you getting an accurate reading from empty to full??

what is the lowest the digital gauge will read??

thanks

tim

So far so good. The highest my gauge reads is 9.9, but I calibrated it to read 8.8 when full. There is a small screw adjustment on the gauge to allow for minor adjustments. It reads zero when empty, but I should still have a little over a gallon in the tank when it hits zero.

So far I've only taken it to 3.5 gallons (reading on the gauge), and still driving it to get to zero. I will report back in a week or so. It started raining so the car has been in the garage. But the gauge appears to be about dead on when using the odometer to calculate mileage and how much gas I have left. (I got pretty good at it )

BTW, the gauge will have small "surges" where it reads a little higher if I do a panic stop, or hard acceleration, but it will go back to a steady reading after settling down.

Looks like a good idea, would of saved me some money because I just bought a new sending unit from the fierostore for about $195, no assembly required.

John

The 25093531 sender for the 87 - 88 is still available from GM but the best price I've seen is $275.00.

quote Originally posted by spark1: The 25093531 sender for the 87 - 88 is still available from GM but the best price I've seen is $275.00.

The Fiero Store sells an aftermarket replica with a newer solid state sending unit that looks just like OEM, but it is 90 bucks cheaper than OEM. I bought one, and it is workign great so far.

Just wondering, any update on how the unit works from full to empty on your electronic fuel gauge. Will it actually register empty when it is empty, and does it have the problem with jumping up and down.

thanks

tim

Tim, I drove my car until the gauge read 1.2 gallons. It started flashing when it read less than 2 gallons. Not wanting to tempt fate, I filled it up instead of risking running out of gas. The car took 7.8 gallons to fill, so the gauge is reading pretty accurate.

I still had about 2 gallons of gas when the gauge read 1.2 gallons... Remember I set my gauge to read 8.8 gallons when I topped it off filled to the top.

So I am pretty satisfied that the gauge is reading pretty accurate. I am not getting any real appreciable fluctuations on my fuel gauge. If I am on an incline, the gauge will read a little higher, or if I do a hard launch it will read a little higher (less than a gallon) but it settles back to an accurate steady reading while cruising, and during normal stops and launches.

[This message has been edited by topcat (edited 03-01-2007).]