WEMA sender for diesel-gctid818952

[Sunnydude]

I am going to replace the senders in my fuel tanks with WEMA. As we all know the 38xx tanks are not rectangular. I have emailed WEMA to see what they recommend (custom request form) and they need me to tell them if we have an American version or European version guage. Basically if the guage is disconnected it is at empty, ground the guage and it goes to full would be american. Do you think it is safe to say it is?

On a side note I did some calculations and believe a 13" sender would be the closest to being accurate as I believe due to the shape it would be accurate. Anyone calculated?

Thanks.

[floatyerboat]

You lost me on this one. I've driven European cars and the gas gauge says empty, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and full just like the US. Unless you have a digital read out gauge I would think WEMA's rule of thumb measure the tank depth and subtract 1 inch would work just fine.

[Sunnydude]

"floatyerboat" post=818981 wrote:
You lost me on this one. I've driven European cars and the gas gauge says empty, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and full just like the US. Unless you have a digital read out gauge I would think WEMA's rule of thumb measure the tank depth and subtract 1 inch would work just fine.

You would think so on the guage but I doubt the rule of thumb holds due to the tank sloping over 42" of width from 17" deep to 6".

[floatyerboat]

That changes it quiet a bit. I was thinking rectangular, square or round tank. I am interested to know approx. where the hole is along the slope where the sender goes in.

[kev_rm]

"floatyerboat" post=818981 wrote:
You lost me on this one. I've driven European cars and the gas gauge says empty, 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and full just like the US. Unless you have a digital read out gauge I would think WEMA's rule of thumb measure the tank depth and subtract 1 inch would work just fine.

The manufacturer was trying to find out if the gauge shows full at zero ohms or infinity ohms. Not which orientation F vs. E was.

[floatyerboat]

Interesting stuff.

[freedre]

Be advised that the sender for a single gauge is different than the sender for two gauges (ie upper and lower helm). I ran into this problem with my 3587 and ended up disconnecting the gauges on the upper helm.

Ron

[ksanders]

If it were me, I'd keep it simple and just go with depth, while having a understanding of the tanks geometry.

If you want to get really complicated you could draw out the tank in 3-D, and experiment with different height senders until you get something that better reflects tank volume vs just fuel height in the tank.

Me... I like simple. I'd go with fuel height measurement, and know that full means full, 1/2 means X gallons etc... Keeping in mind that few prudent mariners operate their boats under 1/2 tank very long.

For us, we operate in the full to 1/2 tank area quite a bit, and only go lower on a planned long trip of a known distance.

[Jim_Gandee]

Sean,

I have no idea of the cost to replace the fuel senders but when/if you do the expense gives you no upgrade and you still only have a very general idea of the amount of fuel in the tanks. If you plan to keep your boat, use it often and for any distance I'd strongly consider the addition of Floscans. Not only will you always know how much fuel you have in each tank but you'll be able to compute your best efficiency (read best speed for fuel use) which will save you money in the long run!

[Destiny_4588]

+1 on FloScans