Rob Edwards

Not being able to leave enough alone, I figured I'd fix the non-operational fuel level sender in the GTS. So I used an oil filter wrench on the big threaded ring on the top of the tank, no problem. Interesting grey never-seize-like stuff on the underside of the top of the sender:




Anyway, I lift up on the sender and there's resistance an inch up. Rotate the sender, still stuck. There's some give to the resistance, like the sender's hung up on some rubber baffle:



And of course, me being me, I pull just a little bit harder, and whatever the baffle is, comes loose. But I still can't remove the sender, 'cause if I do, the baffle thing will fall into the tank. Or (more likely), I'll rip the white plastic bottom off the sender, and both it and the baffle will fall into the tank.





So:

A) WTF is the donut-shaped flexible baffle thing that I've broken loose (nothing listed in PET...),

B) Can I just pull the old sender out and let this thing fall into the tank (can't imagine it'd do anything bad or block anything...)

C) Did I just buy (at minimum) a dropping of the tank? Sigh....

Rob Edwards

Shoulda searched first...

https://rennlist.com/forums/928-foru...re-anyway.html

Oh well, this ought to be fun.

Shark_Week

seems something so simple always turns into a mess. and all you want to do is drive it

Mrmerlin

this is probably the lower sender lport baffle
I wonder if the tank vent may have been plugged at one time and the tank got deformed enough to damage the sender and move the lower port baffle.
If the tank vent is plugged then the tank can suck into itself

Ducman82

could be, or maybe bad plastic that warped on the bottom of the sender. mine got stuck and i pushed down a little and rotated.

Rob Edwards

The sender was working fine when I drove the car back from Oregon last year. After the rebuild (during which I repaired the in-tank pump, but didn't mess with anything else AFAIK), the fuel gauge was erratic, sticking at just above 1/2 tank despite my running out of gas.... I assumed that the sender had gotten varnished during its year with no gas in the tank.

Well, will try to get the sender out, then fish the baffle piece up and see about getting it out. Joy.

EDIT:

Can't decide if I made this dent or if it was there already. Think it was probably me...

zoltan944

i see you didnt' remedy your goo situation

polecat702

Rob, I had the same thing happen last year coming back from Sharktoberfest. My fuel gauge read full all the time. When I tried to removed the sender, it was sorta stuck, I twisted it gently and it finally came out. Mine also had a dent in the aluminum tube. The dent wouldn't let the float move up and down on the wires. I thought I was going to have to buy a new sender. I found out that a piece of 1 1/2" SCH 40 PVC pipe is the exact OD, as the ID of the aluminum tube. Spray it with liberal amounts of WD 40 and the tube will slide down to the dent. I tapped the tube with a rubber mallet gently and removed the dent. When I was finished you could never tell that there was ever a dent in the tube. I reassembled the sender and put it back into the tank. Stan, MR.Merlin, suggested to heat the big plastic nut in boiling water to expand it, and as it cooled would provide a leak free seal. Hope this helps.

Rob Edwards

Well this thing is frickin' interesting....

There's a damned tupperware bowl that encloses the bottom of the sender and the internal fuel pump (foreshadowing.... ) :




So I messed around with trying to install the lid back on the bowl for about 15 minutes, gave myself a good headache sniffing gas fumes, but the bowl is warped relative to the lid and it ain't going back together. Oh well.



Ever wonder why the hell a metric socket set has a 5.5 mm socket? It's for the bottom nut on a 928 level sender. I splurged for a new sender today at 928Intl, it's a faithful recreation of the original, except for the dents:




So I decide to fit the new sender, but now I'm (literally) running into another problem- the internal pump is in the way of the sender seating all the way in:



So one can angle the sender to move past the internal pump. but then it's cockeyed and no way can this be right. Maybe the internal pumps all split the inner hose 'cause they're all cocked 30o by the bottom of the level sender? What am I missing here? Leave it to me to make such a simple thing so complicated.....

pcar928fan

WOW! VERY interesting!!! Can't wait to see how it turns out!

Leon Speed

Maybe you can try to pull the lid up to the top of the tank, hold it there (with wire) and push the plastic end of the fuel sender through it until the top of the plastic end (not all the way through), then set the sender into place. If the plastic end of the sender is taller than the tupperware bowl, it will be at least pressed on. If not, the lid will sit a little higher, but still do part of the job.

Huh, that's weird. Looks like the intank pump has to be cocked to fit the sender. Maybe that's why it has a rubber hose in the middle. Only thing I can think of is that on factory assembly the sender was put in first, then the intank pump. Which is of course not wise to do currently

Mrmerlin

from the looks of things the vent line may be plugged and the tank has gotten deformed, in that case it may be able to be reformed by removing the tank and draining it ,
clean out the insides then sit in the sun and fill with some pressurized air say 5 PSI that may reform it.
also clean out the vent lines. now you can use the old sender to add air simply refit and use the return port

Rob Edwards

Man, I hope I don't have to pull the tank (again...)

When I repaired the split hose in the internal pump I was careful to use the same length of replacement hose, but it's probably stiffer than the original rubber stuff. I don't recall there being any problem with getting the pump back into the tank, tho. Guess I'll pull it out and then put the level sender in first, then replace the internal pump.

Mark Anderson

On a side note it does look like some crap on the screen of the intake pump. Another opportunity for you to clean

jwillman

Rob,

How did you end up resolving this issue. The referenced post above mentions that the plastic bowl assembly is not essential. Are you going to cut up the piece that is loose and remove it?

I have my tank out now for the spinning threaded insert issue and bad in tank pump. James M. had a tank but the entire bowl assebly is loose inside the tank of that one. Trying to figure out my options.