gretchen/jason Posted December 31, 2006 Share Posted December 31, 2006 Ive replaced every gauge i have with autometer phantom gauges as well as a das i made my self out of aluminum and plexi glass . Thing is i dont want to stick my stock fuel gauge in my dash amongst all the nice gauges Ive seen plenty of gauges but none that seem to work with the ohms valuse of a z fuel level sending unit . or is there one i dont know about . And how would i test te ohms on the sending unit i have the 2 wires that send the signal and the one that powers the gauge but not sure how to go about testing it as ive tried different ways and get different readings Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
z bomb Posted February 24, 2007 Share Posted February 24, 2007 I am worried about the same thing but I'm doing mine in a few months. I was probably going to use resistors from radio shack inline with the wire coming from the sending unit. Any othe suggestions though? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gretchen/jason Posted February 25, 2007 Author Share Posted February 25, 2007 Ive heard autometer came out with a adjustable fuel level gauge to adapt to sending units other then GM units . Was supposed to be out some time mid 2006 Jason Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VinhZXT Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 Here is the reason why: The autometer gauge is designed to use with most of the GM cars and the resistence range is from 0 to 90 ohms ( 0 empty and 90 is full). The Z sending unit is working the opposite. Its resistence range is from 250 to 80 ohms ( 250 empty and 80 is full ). If you are good with circuit design you can probably design it to convert the resistence range. However I think it's faster to just find a GM sending unit and drop it into your tank. I've been searching in the junk yards for a GM sending unit that will have the right size and height to drop it into my 280Z's tank. Please let me know if you found a solution. Thanks I've just search around Summit and look at what I found for you: http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?part=ATM-1906 Look at the upper right corner for other autometer gauges that used the same resistence range. I might be a little off with my range above. GL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bartman Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 ...However I think it's faster to just find a GM sending unit and drop it into your tank. I've been searching in the junk yards for a GM sending unit that will have the right size and height to drop it into my 280Z's tank. Please let me know if you found a solution. Thanks I installed my Datsun sending unit into a GM tank (2001 Trans Am), so I would venture to say that it's probably fairly simple to put the GM sending unit into a Datsun tank as well. You may have to play around with the bends in the float arm as I did in my install, but with a little ingenuity you should be able to figure it out. Another option would be to use a GM tank like I did, which will also give you the option of running dual exhaust exiting the rear on both sides of the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VinhZXT Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 Bartman, Thanks for the info. The reason for me to drop a GM sending unit in the Z's tank because I have the C5 instrument cluster in my Z. I just found out there is another problem with my set up. The C5s used 2 gas tanks and therefore they have 2 sending units. I just did some more reading for the C5s fuel sending system and found out that the PCM uses both signals to calculate the fuel level. So before I jump the gun and installing the GM sending unit into a Z I have to make sure it will work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neverenough Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 I just measured my sending unit that I got with my 2001 camaro tank. With the arm all the way down(empty) it measures 40 ohms and all the way up(full) it measured 250ohms. I thought all gm senders were 0-90 ohms but I guess not the new ones. I just talked to autometer and they have a programable guage that will work with any sender and its part number 4310. The only issue is its only avalible in a 2 1/16th size. I will be doing water temp, oil pressure and fuel pressure in the dash and mount the fuel level out of the way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poundz9oh9 Posted March 14, 2007 Share Posted March 14, 2007 I was looking for the exact same thing and that guage looks like it'll be a great addition to the project. I couldn't find it in Jegs or Summit. Anybody know where I could get one? Edit: Wow, I found it. $104 and some change, pricey little booger aint it!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKWIKZ Posted March 14, 2007 Share Posted March 14, 2007 If you are just using your stock Nissan wiring and sender then you want a gauge for a Ford application. They use the same OHM range. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
veritech-z Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 Cyberdyne offers gauges in whatever resistance range you need, so I have to assume that if you call autometer on the phone and talk to somebody, they probably have a similar line of product. I've got the Summit 16 gallon plastic cell that came with a built in 0 ohms empty, 90 ohms full sender, and I ordered a cyberdyne that read in that range (but alas, I broke it when I was trying to tell it how big my tank was...turns out that thing on the right that looks like a "9" was actually a lowercase "g" and trying to get the adjuster on the back to go below 169 will cause it to break-thereby making my gauge unusable...). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trwebb26 Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 I put in an autometer cobalt fuel guage using the stock 280z sending unit. All you have to do is program it.... hit a button with an empty tank (it reads the resistance) and then fill'er up - hit another button (reads resistance again) and you are good to go. I would be very suprised if this feature wasn't on the autometer phantom guages, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poundz9oh9 Posted March 15, 2007 Share Posted March 15, 2007 Yeah it's pretty much the same way (from what I've read) but it's only available in the Pro Comp series. Doesn't really match my other guages (Phantom seies), but I'd make the sacrifice to have an accurate guage. You wouldn't happen to know the part number of your Cobalt would you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teekass Posted May 28, 2007 Share Posted May 28, 2007 Hey Pound, have you seen this one? http://www.autometer.com/cat_gaugedetail.aspx?gid=2616&sid=7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pop N Wood Posted May 29, 2007 Share Posted May 29, 2007 Just send your gauge to Autometer and have them recalibrate it http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=120459&highlight=autometer+reverse Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teekass Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 Here is the reason why:The autometer gauge is designed to use with most of the GM cars and the resistence range is from 0 to 90 ohms ( 0 empty and 90 is full). The Z sending unit is working the opposite. Its resistence range is from 250 to 80 ohms ( 250 empty and 80 is full ). I thought the Z sending unit was from 73-10 ohms (empty-full)? I'm asking more than anything. http://store.summitracing.com/egnsearch.asp?Ntk=KeywordSearch&DDS=1&Ntt=atm%2D4815&searchinresults=false&N=+115 Hey Pop N Wood, you're pretty savvy with electronics, do you (or anyone else) think the above gauge will work correctly? It looks like a good fit to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimZ Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 http://alteredz.com/gagecalibration.htm Thank Pete, not me... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pop N Wood Posted May 31, 2007 Share Posted May 31, 2007 If the numbers Vinh gave for the sensor resistance is correct (and I have not reason to believe otherwise), then Pete's method isn't going to work for this solution. There might be a way to hook up a passive resistor network different from Pete's that returns the correct results, but it would require too much thought on my part right now. It could almost certainly be done with some type of active (op-amp) circuit. But For $25 just send the guage to Autometer and have them do it. Personnally I like the cheesy look of the stock guages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimZ Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 If the numbers Vinh gave for the sensor resistance is correct (and I have not reason to believe otherwise), then Pete's method isn't going to work for this solution. Read it again - you just need to use the variant of the gauge that is intended for the Ford (73 ohms Empty and 8-12 ohms Full) sender instead of the GM one. This works - I'm currently using the Cyberdyne blue ice fuel gauge in my car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pop N Wood Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 Read what again exactly? I didn't read all of Pete's stuff cause the equations were pretty easy to derive. If I use Vinh's numbers for the sender resistance and the guage numbers from Teakass's link, I can't get a solution that doesn't require negative resistances. I did double check it with Pete's spreadsheet and it said no solution also. I ran it a second time with the numbers you posted for the Ford guage (which summit doesn't carry in the style that Teakass linked) and that had no solution also. Maybe the sender numbers are not correct, or maybe there is a solution that is close but not exact. Do you remember what resistance values you used? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madkaw Posted June 1, 2007 Share Posted June 1, 2007 Man am I glad to see this thread:-D I am putting a early 70's Cj-5 gas tank in my 71 and I was just getting ready to travel down this road. I just measured my sending unit(stock unit for the JEEP cj-5) and it reads around 350ohms empty. Sorry, I will have to take it out to read full. That seems pretty close to the Z ### I am seeing here, maybe I got lucky. I just figured a similiar year would work on the same theroy. Hope this helps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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