mixter755

I am looking for a fuel sending unit for a 1969 Delta 88 Custom w/ 455 cid. Does any one know where I can find one and or if there is a cross reference to another GM model's send unit that would be compatible?

Thanks,

jaunty75

I think the fuel sending unit was the same regardless of engine. Anyway, I needed a sending unit for my '67 Delta 88, and they're not made new. I found that one for a '72 Delta 88 would fit. I put it in and it works fine.


Autozone has them, and I'm guessing any other auto parts store does, too. rockauto.com also has them.


http://www.autozone.com/autozone/par.../N-iptn1Z8vdfx

paperchaserlen

Hey I have a 69 model how did u manage to get it to work

Kogreene

I replace my sending unit in my 69 Delta 88 with the one pictured above, but now my fuel gauge moves when driving. What can cause the needle to not be stable? HELLLLLLLPPPPPP!!!

jaunty75

It moves because the tank does not have dampening baffles in it. The old sending unit relied on the canister around the float to dampen the movement of the gasoline as you go around corners or up and down hills. Without that canister and without the baffles, the fluid does slosh around, and the gauge needle will wiggle around. I experience this, too. Newer gas tanks, which were designed to use this style of sending unit, do have baffles in them.

But the gauge steadies out when the car is in steady motion or standing still, so you can read the fuel level, and, to my mind, this movement of the needle is a very small price to pay in exchange for a working fuel gauge. No, it's not perfect, but it works, and given that exact replacements of the canister-style sending unit are not made new and NOS ones on ebay can cost upwards of $500, this is the way to go.

Enjoy the fact that you now know how much fuel is in the tank and get on with life!

Kogreene

Thanks for the info, is the only way to get a steady reading is to replace the tank or purchase a canister sending unit. Do you know of or ever heard of someone rebuilding the canister-style sending unit?

oldcutlass

There are 2 trains of thought on this issue. Are they really wide swings in what the gauge is reading as the car is moving? My take is all the old cars gas gauges fluctuate about an 1/8 of a tank. As long as the gauge is moving, I know there is fuel in there. They also are not an accurate measurement of fuel level due to the shape of the tank. Some gauges will ride on full for a long time and then suddenly drop like a rock to 1/2. I never let it drop below a 1/3 because these old fuel gauges tend not to be accurate below a 1/4. If you can live with it, I'd move on to something else to be concerned with.

jaunty75

Replace it with what? New gas tanks are not made for these cars any more than new sending units are. I don't know if a tank from a later model Delta 88 would work. Is the fluctuation really that bad?

As I said earlier, ugh. I can think of 10,000 other things I'd rather do with my money than spend hundreds of dollars on an NOS unit that is probably likely to get stuck during use, anyway.

Pretty much anything can be rebuilt. I tried rebuilding mine. I had it working very smoothly, I thought, but when I put it back in the tank, it got stuck after about 10 minutes. So I had to drop the tank again, and I said to myself that I'm not going to drop it a third time. I was going to fix the problem once and for all, and a later-year sending unit did the trick.



As oldcutlass says, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good. You now have a working gas gauge. It's time to stop obsessing about it and move on the car's next problem.

mixter755

Thanks for the input, I am looking to have Gas Tank-Renu clean and refinish the tank and they think they know someone to rebuild the sending unit. I'll let you know what they say.