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Author: Subject: Landrover fuel gauge
andrew.carwithen

posted on 17/4/07 at 08:28 PM Reply With Quote
Landrover fuel gauge

Just bought a used Landrover Defender fuel gauge off ebay to use in My Avon.
I connected it up temporarily to the dash wiring and my fuel sender (not from a Landrover) which has a range in region of 30 - 270 ohms.
With ignition on and sender removed from tank, I simply get full scale deflection (i.e. reads full) irrespective of what position I move float arm of sender to.
If I remove feed wire from sender then gauge drops to zero. If I earth out this wire then, again, I get full scale deflection.
Has anyone used the same fuel gauge and if so, what sender did you use? (Looking on ebay, a genuine landrover sender looks to be a big cumbersome thing which looks as though it would be way too big to fit in a 'seven' type tank.)

Cheers,
Andy.

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mackei23b

posted on 17/4/07 at 09:04 PM Reply With Quote
First check the sender to see if the resitance is changing, might be worth a look first
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caber

posted on 17/4/07 at 09:15 PM Reply With Quote
Are you on the right terminal? some senders have a low level warning light connection. As it happens most older land rovers have these. I have an old Range rover sender but didn't use it as it is side entry rather than top entry and was foul of the baffle.

caber

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andrew.carwithen

posted on 17/4/07 at 09:15 PM Reply With Quote
Yup. checked sender with multimeter and resistance varies between approx. 280 ohms (float at its lowest level i.e. empty) and 30ohms (at its highest i.e. full.)
So its not the sender itself. (unless, of course, its not suitable, anyway.)
Does anyone know what the resistance range of a landrover sender is etc?.
I also swapped around terminals. made no difference.

Andy.

[Edited on 17/4/07 by andrew.carwithen]

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02GF74

posted on 18/4/07 at 07:10 AM Reply With Quote
I have LR fitted with twin fuel tanks and using two defender guages.

The data given for resistance match up very well with the series senders which I am afraid to say, are not compatible with the Defender guages.

There are 2 issues:

Series guages run off a 10 V voltage stabiliser, Defender guages run directly off the battery 14-ish V.

Secondly, I am pretty sure the Defender sender works in opposite direction - i.e. high resistance when full and low when empty; from memory I think the max resistance is 1 K ohm.

Basically using a Series sender with Defender guage should show some deflection but not enough and in the wrong direction.

So now you are wondering how come I got it to work? I made a small circuit that did two things - scale the voltage from the sender (compensates for different resistances) to the defender and to invert the signal (compensate for the different direction).

Simplest solution is to change the guage for a series one (whcih you can't as a separate guage does not exist - usually they were part of another guage) or use defender sender.


quote:
(Looking on ebay, a genuine landrover sender looks to be a big cumbersome thing which looks as though it would be way too big to fit in a 'seven' type tank.


not sure about this - it is is similarto Series one, - the circular body is not mcuh different in diameter to an escort one; the arm is a piece of wire that can be shortented and bent to suit; it does need to be mounted on a horizontal surface.

[Edited on 18/4/07 by 02GF74] Rescued attachment lrguage.jpg
Rescued attachment lrguage.jpg

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02GF74

posted on 18/4/07 at 07:12 AM Reply With Quote
and DIY adapter: Rescued attachment adp.JPG
Rescued attachment adp.JPG

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andrew.carwithen

posted on 18/4/07 at 02:50 PM Reply With Quote
TBH, I think the senders I saw on ebay were for the Discovery (may also incorporate the fuel pump - hence why they look bulky?). I just assumed (probably wrongly!) that the senders would be the same as used in a Defender?
Do you (or anyone else) have pics of a defender fuel sender?
or, if as you say, the Defender fuel gauge isn't suitable, recommend one that is? (its a pity, 'cos the Defender fuel gauge almost matches my Fireblade clocks.)

Andy.

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