Technical Panda Fuel sender (fuel gauge) broken (also marbella)

[pandamonius_maximus]

Hi to all,

i took the marbella's fuel tank sender unit out the other day and found out why the gauge had stuck at half full (causing me to run out of fuel a couple of times ).

Here is the unit (fiddly to get it out the tank, but just takes some carefull jiggling: There a re loads of small nuts at the top holding it on so make sure you get them all un-done:

would the panda ones be the same? I beleive that someones panda on here had a faulty gauge too so thought even if this is a different design the problem and solution could be the same....

In the above picture, there is a plunger (the dirty brown cylinder bit with a rod sticking out of the top) designed to prevent the float from moving every time the fuel sloshes about....this gets clogged up with crud so causes the gauge to stick...just carefully ease the plunger up and clean it out and this should have it fixed.

Just thought I would share my findings as the sender units are a pain to find!

Cheers,
Si

 

[aca]

Hi Si,

As I see this sender is exactly the same as on Zastava Yugo. Sticky fuel sender on Yougo is resolved (for long term basis) on that way:

Dissasemble plastic cylinder and plastic piston from sender (be cearful - plastic is very gentle). Tru to make vertical scratches (channels) over vertical axis of plastic piston - max. - one mm deep. Best way is to use some toothed - metall saw sheet. Have to make five to six vertical channels on piston and that will make diferent fuel flow-speed between cylinder and piston (faster flow over channels and slower over flat surface of piston)during fuel flush. This different fuel flow speed will wipeout evry usual particles from cylinder. Be cearful during make a vertical scratches on piston - not to going too deep - just one mm.
If you dont make vertical channels piston become sticky very soon again.....

Aca

 

[pandamonius_maximus]

Hi Si,

As I see this sender is exactly the same as on Zastava Yugo. Sticky fuel sender on Yougo is resolved (for long term basis) on that way:

Dissasemble plastic cylinder and plastic piston from sender (be cearful - plastic is very gentle). Tru to make vertical scratches (channels) over vertical axis of plastic piston - max. - one mm deep. Best way is to use some toothed - metall saw sheet. Have to make five to six vertical channels on piston and that will make diferent fuel flow-speed between cylinder and piston (faster flow over channels and slower over flat surface of piston)during fuel flush. This different fuel flow speed will wipeout evry usual particles from cylinder. Be cearful during make a vertical scratches on piston - not to going too deep - just one mm.
If you dont make vertical channels piston become sticky very soon again.....

Aca

Thanks Aca, wish I had done that now sounds like a good idea. Oh well, as long as I get a good number of miles out of it before it sticks again I will be happy. It will do for now eihter way though!

Si

 

[aca]

Thanks Aca, wish I had done that now sounds like a good idea. Oh well, as long as I get a good number of miles out of it before it sticks again I will be happy. It will do for now eihter way though!

Si

I hope so Si, but quantity of tank particles - tend to drasticly increase- over time.....So if it ever happens again, just have this on mind...scratched channels over senders piston will definitely solve the sticky sender forever (despite quantity of tank particles)....

Cheers,
Aca

 

[aca]

Just in case still avilable here new:

 

[Bougainvillea Rosso]

It turns out that when I took the tank off the Terra camper yesterday I had exactly the same problem (except the piston was stuck right at the bottom showing no petrol). Oddly it looks like a very new tank with hardly any crud in it. Maybe the sender wasn't cleaned out when it was swapped. Dodgy design anyway.