02 Venture Fuel Level Sending Unit; new failure mode!

[Booch]

Been reading about the various ways a fuel level sending unit can fail; think I have a first!

Purchased a new sending unit on eBay for less than $25; dealer wanted over $70!

Dropped the tank, pulled out the pump, and took a close look at the unit; at first, I thought I had play in the bushing as others have found.

However, looking closer, turns out one of the two springed 'tangs' that ride up and down on the potentiometer had broken off, and was not making contact with the board! No amount of fuel additive would have fixed this!

1 hour job to complete the job, and everything works as it should! Terrible pic, but the tangs are inside the black square, and the one farthest from the pivot point is broke....

[rkvons]

Yeah, that is strange. I changed out a sender on a 1998 Monte Carlo last summer that had 180K on the clock and the tangs were so worn out from rubbing along the surface that they were like thin tin foil and were not pressing against the potentiometer surface hard enough.