So back in January, I replaced my fuel tank and sender unit. The sender unit I put in didn't work right from day 1, however I was too lazy to pull it back out again and replace it. It finally quit a few weeks ago and I went to replace it under warranty a few days ago. Here's the current status of the project:
Original sending unit - worked fine, was replacing tank so might as well replace the sender at the same time.
Replacement number one - 'E' was half a tank, a full tank was '3/4', turns out the sender unit was mounted about 1.5 - 2 inches too high with no room to bend the float down. The float ended up getting jammed at the top of the tank.
Replacement number two - Decided to test this one fully before puting in, seemed to work fine. That was until gas got to it. Very intermittent, almost like there was a "dead" spot in it. Would read fine, then go 'FULL', then read fine, then go 'FULL'.
Replacement number three - Decided to FULLY test this one before putting in. Put it throught the paces on the bench, all seemed okay. WRONG! I didn't realize that when you buy an electrical product from a company you should inspect for shorts! The damn thing is shorted out, took me a while to figure that out. Measured the resistance, reads half tank. Checked my guage, works fine. Finally after chasing wires for a couple of hours, I noticed the resistance between the chassis and the purple signal wire was 3 ohms! DAMNIT!
Replacement number four - This will most likely take place on Monday. I guess I'll take this one to an electrical testing facility and have it fully inspected, then to a chemical testing lab to make sure the materials used in the product will handle contact with fuel, and finally off to a secret testing facitlity where the unit will be put through 10,000 hours of harsh testing before being installed in my vehicle.
I think it's funny that the manufacturers website states "All products are engineered to the highest quality standards for peak performance and precise first time fit."
Steve