Fuel sender

Does anyone know what fuel sender I could use on my Chevy Chevette gas tank. I can hear you say “try a Chevy Chevette one” but I can’t source a new one anywhere?

I was able to repair mine. It was just a bad connection on a wire.  It's worth a try to fix the one you have.  Nothing to lose.

VDO sells a fuel sender with the same resistance as the Chevette sender (0-90 ohms).  This is a universal sender intended for installation in aftermarket or custom fuel tanks.

You could take your original sender mounting plate and adapt the new sender mechanism to it.  Shouldn't be too difficult, but it would be a DIY proposition.

A link to the VDO sender:

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It is possible that another GM sender will fit in the Chevette tank without modification, but I doubt it and finding it would take considerable knowledge of GM senders or a lot of luck.  All GM senders from 65-97 had the same resistance and most had the same type of mounting plate, so you might be able to modify one from another model.  The mid 70's GM trucks had a simple sender layout, basically just a mounting plate and a vertical pickup tube and sender mount.  It is too tall for the Chevette tank, but could be shortened easily with a simple brass compression union.  I have actually done this for a custom fuel tank I built for my son's Chevy truck.  

The float arm would need to be shortened for the Chevette tank, also.  I didn't have to do this.  This will most likely require a couple of tiny spot welds.  There is very little load on the arm, so it won't take much to hold it together.  It might be easier to cut the arm of of the Chevette sender and weld it to the truck sender if the truck arm is shaped wrong.

Here's a link to a sender from a truck:

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Unfortunately, sometimes old car parts get discontinued, especially if it was not a popular model. The Chevette was nowhere near popular.  I'm surprised the  fuel tank itself is still available.  Not unusual to have to fabricate or modify existing available parts to keep an old car functioning.

Thanks for this. I have a new one that I’ve adapted. This new one works fine on the gauge outside of the tank. It draws fuel but the float is not sitting correctly so just reads empty. I’m going to drop the tank again and match the bends to get the float in a similar place to the old one. The old one is pretty rusted up and the filters missing (somewhere in the old tank!). I’m off to a salvage yard at the weekend where they have a 78 chevette. Hopefully no ones got there before me! All the best. Steve

Sorted.....I rechecked my adapted one and realized the float was in the wrong area of the tank. Adjusted it and I’m now getting a good reading on the tank. Still not sure why a 0-90 ohm sender works with the 10-184 ohm VDO gauges, but maybe someone out there knows?

VDO makes several different gauges that were set up for most manufacturers senders. The "normal" VDO resistance is 10-184 ohms, but since Classic Roadsters was using the GM tank and sender, they used the VDO gauge for GM resistance.

Thanks Hotrod!