Fuel sender float

[138]

Investigating the "always empty" fuel problem I found that the float has come off the arm and it's still in the tank . Besides pinching a cork from a bottle of plonk, what can be used as a float? I was thinking of using a piece of 1" dowel (Mum's mop handle will become a little shorter). I will remove what is left of the original cork float when the tank is down to a low level .

[ardiesse]

It's easiest to buy a whole new sender assembly from Rare Spares. Petrol's less dense than water, so I doubt that a dowel floats in petrol. About the only thing I could suggest is balsa, sealed well with shellac. Or the polyurethane spray buoyancy/gap-filler, sprayed into a toilet roll tube.

Just a thought.

Rob

[Blacky]

Original ones seem to be cork, I had a NOS one in a box in EKMart and a rat or mouse ate the end out of the box and half the float

[In the Shed]

A brass float would work, although you would need to drill a hole and solder a small diameter copper tube through the middle to fiddle it up.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/33371628596 ... p_homepage

Or you could get some copper sheet and make your own? Alternatively try gauge works https://www.gaugeworks.com.au/

[Harv]

It's easiest to buy a whole new sender assembly from Rare Spares. Petrol's less dense than water, so I doubt that a dowel floats in petrol. About the only thing I could suggest is balsa, sealed well with shellac. Or the polyurethane spray buoyancy/gap-filler, sprayed into a toilet roll tube.

Fuel is around 740 kg/m³, so for some typical dried Aussie timbers:

Alpine ash: 650 kg/m³ (floats)
White cypress: 700 kg/m³ (floats... just)
Jarrah: 820 kg/m³ (sinks)
Sydney blue gum: 840 kg/m³ (sinks)
Blackbutt: 900 kg/m³ (sinks)
Brushbox: 900 kg/m³ (sinks)
Radiata pine: 545 kg/m³ (floats)
Balsa: 120-220 kg/m³ (floats)

That foam filler idea is clever.

Cheers,
Harv

[Blacky]

That foam filler idea is clever.

Cheers,
Harv

I have a sneaking suspicion the petrol would eat that stuff .......

[Harv]

That foam filler idea is clever.

Cheers,
Harv

I have a sneaking suspicion the petrol would eat that stuff .......

Hard to tell. The polyurethanes are normally fairly impervious to petrol, though other data shows they are not. I've got a can of Bostick foam here (for a project that I was going to bodgy, then my conscience got the better of me ). It reckons that new foam can be dissolved with acetone, but old foam only by mechanical means.

Cheers,
Harv