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Hey guys,
After removing my fuel tank a while back to wire up the sending unit, I was greeted by rust that had chewed up the top of my tank. When I removed the sending unit, part of the tank came with it. Let's just say my budget is tight and repairing this tank would be costly. I found a fuel cell on JEGS for roughly $170.00. I know you probably wouldn't recommend me doing this, but I really need to get this old gal running soon. This is my first and only car so far and I intend she's going to be a daily driver. I'm not going to chunk the old tank. It will be repaired later on down the road. I wanted to know if a GM style sending unit "0-90 ohm" can be wired in place of the existing sending unit and read on the old gauge.

Thank you,
GearRat

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"0-90 ohm" can be wired in place of the existing sending unit and read on the old gauge.

No. The ohms are at the reverse ends. Packard needs about 80 ohms when empty and 10 ohms when full. Some Ford and Chrysler products use those numbers. The Ford unit fits right in the Packard tank with no mods but not sure about your fuel cell.secure435.hostgator.com/~dlvry40/ufolder/CgCat.php?onepart=B7A-9275-F

JC Whitney did have a universal fuel sender which could be cut and adjusted as needed to fit various tanks. I didn't see it doing a quick look just now but if you want to search more, those are the ohms you need and it was Ford-Chrysler.

EDIT: Here is the JC Whitney unit I bought a couple of years ago. I know it's more money last I looked and it may still be available if the Ford unit won't fit.

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Thanks HH56, I see "70-10 ohms" on summitracing.com. Would that be enough to cut it?
summitracing.com/parts/JZP-254-016-01/

I don't know. It doesn't list an application but maybe with those numbers. You need to find out which end is which. The Chevy sender is 0 ohms when empty and 90 when full. If that one is 10 when full and 70 empty then probably -- except that the loss of 10 ohms at the bottom end may skew things and make the gauge read a little high overall. Not an issue at high end but bad news if the gauge might say there is fuel when you are sucking fumes.

You may be able to get a good used tank from Mike Dulinski cheaper than fuel cell from Summit.

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HH is spot on about the Chevy sender...The PO of my car mistakenly installed a unit out of an early 50's Chevy in my Clipper and ended up at some point calling his brother-in-law to bring him some fuel...the gauge was reading backwards but he didn't realize it until he ran out. I would do like BigKev suggested and invest in a good used original tank which I think you would be much happier with. Besides, you may luck up in that it could have a good sending unit already in it.

If your tank is not too far gone, a local shop may be able to recondition it for about the price of the fuel cell. My local radiator shop also does fuel tanks. Call around and get price quotes. I defer to the expertise of others on the sender unit.

Take a look thru this :
packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb ... orum=4&post_id=71424#forumpost71424

(Start on page 1).

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See it's coming on 9 months since Keegan last posted. Do hope it's because he's been too busy and nothing else.

From the looks of the tank, he left off at the mounting of fuel sender part. I still think with a bit of finesse and experimenting that a plate and bracket could be made to use their existing hole and mount our sender all internally rather than cut a new hole. At least that tank would be an option until those "maybe" repro tanks O_D mentioned comes along.

Another thing you might want to try no matter which route you take on the repair would be to put gasoline back into the reinstalled tank a gallon or two at a time and then note where the gauge needle sits before adding next gallon of gas. Do this until its full and you will have a better than ballpark idea of fuel in tank.