I'm sure I got a short.

[RobbieD]

I have to pull the whole fuel pump assembly however to get to the sender unit, right?

Yes.

 

[ShhhhhDougsHere]

What do you think the odds are that I will be able to re-use the gasket?

 

[RobbieD]

What do you think the odds are that I will be able to re-use the gasket?

Been a LONG time since I had to change one. If memory serves (no guarantee there), it uses a big o-ring which should be reusable if it's not damaged.

If it were me, I wouldn't buy any parts until I had the old one out and looked it over real good. If you're reading "open circuit" at the wiring connector, it might be something can that be repaired, like a broken wire or out of adjustment contact arm at the sending unit. Not much to them; pretty old-school technology.

And then should you need to buy a part, you have the old one in hand so that you can compare the new one before you buy it.

 

[Brain75]

(and take your ohm meter with you to the store and test it before you pay for it)!

 

[Brain75]

I pulled my sender and fixed the float (full of gas) back first thing when I started working on it. @ 34 years the o ring was still in good enough shape to seal so I replaced 1 part only - the filler neck.... That said, everyone in the family (i.e. all of the truck's drivers) since we took over in '96 have not overfilled it and soaked the sender top in gas @ 100% full. the filler neck just disintegrated when I touched it - 0-15% humidity plains, everything plastic or rubber gets brittle and crumbly.

 

[ShhhhhDougsHere]

That's all good ideas.
But this is my daily driver.
At this point I got no other vehicles that are reliable.
I can't just take it apart for who knows how long

 

[ShhhhhDougsHere]

Okay folks I went ahead and took my truck's fuel pump assembly out to at least take a look at it.

Like most of you guys recommended.

Picture 1 fuel pump assembly laying on first side.

In this picture, picture 1 you can see the float arm and sender are up.

Picture 2 fuel pump assembly laying on its other side.

In this picture, picture 2 you can see the fuel pump better along with everything else.

Picture 3

In this picture, picture 3 you see a close up of how they ran the black ground wire from the sender to the metal plate that the center is attached to.

Picture 4

In this picture, picture 4 you can see the underside i.e. the side that's in the tank of plug pens/pegs/posts for the plug.

The black one is the ground for the fuel pump.

The red one is the power for the fuel pump.

The blue one is the sender, send out wire. I.E. the wire that on the other side of the plug becomes wire 29.

As you can see there is no wire on the last spot.

What I'm thinking is the factory believed that when they soldered the ground wire for the sender to the plate that it's attached to the ground would run from the plate to the pipe or tube that goes up to the top of the fuel pump assembly and then on to or into the cap ring or whatever it's called at the top of the fuel pump assembly and therefore run to the plug pen, peg, post.

I hooked my multimeter to the actual contact points of the fuel sender and it does work I gots readings big time.

I believe all I need to do is solder a wire from the underside of the ground pen, peg, post whatever it called to the ground plug on the sender itself.


Notice I also have a bucket covering the actual hole in my gas tank it happens to be sprinkling here right now.
Even if it wasn't sprinkling I think the bucket is a good idea to keep things from getting in there.

 

[Curious Hound]

Sounds good.

 

[ShhhhhDougsHere]

I now I got my next question do I need a special kind of solder?

 

[Brain75]

"What I'm thinking is the factory believed that when they soldered the ground wire for the sender to the plate that it's attached to the ground would run from the plate to the pipe or tube that goes up to the top of the fuel pump assembly and then on to or into the cap ring or whatever it's called at the top of the fuel pump assembly and therefore run to the plug pen, peg, post. "

Very sure that's not a factory/OEM sender, it's been replaced with aftermarket before you got it.
If it was factory, the rubber hose would have the Ford oval on it, and Ford didn't use that style external clip.... they did go similar from 98 on but not that style.

That said, you can fix the aftermarket and get more mileage out of it.

All three of those through hole/bulkhead connections look to be running through a white nylon insulator - so the ground is insulated... I can't see how that ever worked day 1.

The blue wire doesn't run to the rheostat, it runs to the casing... I would guess that someone mis-assembled it at the spectre factory. And that blue wire should go to the wiper side of the rheostat, the black should span the other 2 leftover plugs (providing ground to the other end of the wiper/windings).

If you can figure out what brand it is we could google up a picture and see if the wiring is visible enough to corroborate. Or run to whatever brick and mortar store carries one, ask to look at it for a minute and take note of how it is wired.

 

[ShhhhhDougsHere]

When I said Factory I was not talking about the factory that FORD buy it's fuel pump assemblys from.

I was talking about whatever factory made the after market fuel pump assembly that's in my truck right now.

I put my truck back together.

I need it.
So I can go buy a soldering iron and everything else I'm going to need to fix the ground on the fuel pump assembly, sender.

I've already did enough testing and know just what points to solder to.

I just don't know what kind of solder to use.
Or what kind of flux to use.

Can anyone tell me what to buy?
Thanks.

 

[Brain75]

anything, cheap is fine... you only need silver solder (made with real Silver) for drinking water (since the rest of the stuff is lead alloy)

 

[RobbieD]

Get the thinnest flux-core solder that they have.

The trick to soldering is to get the parts hot, too, and not just the wire. When the solder melts it should flow onto the heated part, along with flowing into the wire. Thinner solder will help; clean the points to be soldered (like with alcohol), and if it's a hard part a little sanding on the spot will give the solder some "tooth" to grab onto. Try to be quick, to getting sufficient heat and getting solder flow, and watch any close-by plastic (if any) that it doesn't get too hot and melt.

That pump assembly looks new; I'd try salvaging it before buying another one. Good job on figuring it out!

 

[ShhhhhDougsHere]

I'm using the money I would buy a new fuel pump assembly with to buy the stuff to fix the one I got.

When I was in prison one of the guys that worked on things there told me to put solder on my wire before I even put the wire to what I'm soldering to.

They also told me to get solder on the piece that the wires going to attach to.
Then you can lay the already pre soldered wire onto the soldered point that you've already made on what your soldering to.
Put your heated up soldering iron on top of the wire that's already soldered and the solder point that it's laying on, heat it up once you see the solder melt take soldering iron off.
Then it should attach.

I'm at harbor freight now.
I got a soldering iron.
A little stand to help me do what I'm doing.
A little sponge.
I got some electrical solder that says it's for electrical and it's really thin it looks like.
Now I got to go get some flux somewhere else.

 

[ShhhhhDougsHere]

Went next door from harbor freight to O'Reilly's Auto parts and bought some flux paste.

I have some cheap generic art paint brushes at my house.
I'll use one of those for the flux paste.
Should have everything I need now.

Now I just got to wait for another day when my brother can help me lift my bed up.
Most likely that will be Saturday or Sunday maybe.

Been driving this long without a gas gauge I guess I can go a few more days right.
Lol.