Took out the fuel sender (under the first aid kit). Adj. wrench didn't do it, nut was on tight and the wrench was slipping off because of the angle. Found my 3/4 " drive socket set and the 1 7/8 socket fit loose but did the job (I measured the sender it's 45 mm).

Anyway the sender was coated in a film of black stuff. Is that algae? I'll post a separate thread on that later. I shook the sender back and forth to clear all the black sludge in the sender out of the 3 little holes. After most of the sludge was out, I wrapped it in newspaper and started a 15 minute dance and shook it back and forth while rotating it. The dance was to clean the contacts. I then put an ohmeter and tilted the sender to put it through the different levels and made sure there was no dead spot and also checked the low level continuity switch to make sure it was working. Re-Installed the sender and the needle is now rock steady.

I always use this procedure first on intermittent fuel sender, if it doesn't do the job, then I take it apart to do a real cleaning job.

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked