RE: 66 TI Fuel Guage Sending Unit Questions

[Richard Broughton <richard.broughton@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

We removed the fuel tank in the 66 TI on Sunday. The car has been sitting
with the engine out since 1972 and it still had almost 5 gallons of fuel
inside. The fuel had this wonderful varnish aroma to it that would make your
head spin after a few minutes. Had to open the windows and doors to the
garage to air the place out. After removing the fuel gauge sending unit we
have some questions for the collective consciousness:

  1.	The sending unit has been partially immersed in high test Amoco
gasoline for almost 27 years. The portion below the fuel line is in fairly
good shape. The portion above the fuel looks like it spent time in a salt
water bath. The copper parts are a deep powdery turquoise and everything
else is covered in scaly rust. The electrical circuitry is corroded,
contacts are corroded, no resistance through the unit as the float is moved.
Are these units rebuildable? Just looking at it, we thought that maybe a
good cleaning might bring it back. Wishful thinking?

  2.	If it's not rebuildable, does anybody out there have one for sale,
or know where we can buy one? We looked in the parts catalogs we have and
didn't see anything for the 105 carb cars.

  3.	This question really bugged us Sunday night after we got the unit
out of the tank. There is a set of contacts in the circuitry that presumably
turns on the idiot light on the dash to warn you that you are low on gas.
Contacts that I'm familiar with have a tendency to arc as the points come
together. I'll admit that having the rear of the car blow up is a pretty
drastic way of warning you that you are low on gas, but why doesn't this
happen? Just curious.

Thanks in advance for just being there. I can't imagine doing this project
without this kind of resource at my fingertips.

Richard Broughton
Columbia, SC
66 Giulia TI  

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