While visiting Hudson, NY this past weekend, lo and behold along drove a Bugeye, so I stepped into Warren Street to flag it down. Turns out the Engels were out for an evening drive. They had been to our shop for parts on a prior visit– what a delight to encounter customers on a chance meeting three hours from home.
I asked if all was working on this car, so that I could offer some drive-by diagnostics. The fuel gauge was Walter’s number one complaint. With a turn of the key, I could see the gauge was powering up from pegged to exactly empty. We removed the cap and shook the tank, fuel was clearly present. So I bet Walter that his fuel sender had a plastic float which had been attacked by ethanol, filled up and sank. Thus the gauge reads empty because his float has turned into a sinker.
I wish suppliers world-over would stop supplying these plastic floats, as we keep running into this problem. They are useless, and will sink within their first year in ethanol. We have a brass float solution which is impervious to ethanol. Unless you want
to change your sender twice, please make sure to get one of these brass floats, no one wants to drain and remove their fuel tank a second time because of inferior parts. Click here to jump over to our catalog and order a new fuel gauge sender upgraded with a brass float.
You’ll also want to make sure to use the Viton gasket set and not cork, or your tank will leak out of the top each time you fill it. We sell complete pressure tested tanks with metal floats and Viton gaskets already installed if you would prefer a complete assembly ready to install. Click here to order a new fuel tank kit (with sender included).
Pit stop over, the Engels took off into a fantastic summer night, their Bugeye right at home on main street in a hip town full of all kinds of vintage coolness.
