Retensioning The Resistive Wire on a W124 Fuel Sending Unit
 

While being very careful cleaning my sending unit as I was replacing the gas tank / sending unit seals last weekend, I stretched and kinked one of the wires the float rides up and down on. Man, what a disappointment. :confused:

I noticed the wires on either side are just soldered at the top and bottom. So I used my soldering iron on the stretched side to retension the wire. So far so good.

But when driving my car this week, I noticed that when the fuel level hit about half a tank, the fuel level needle swung down to 1/4 6 or 7 times over 20 minutes or so. Now it is stable after burning some more fuel.

I am guessing when the float passes over the kink in the wire it messes up the total resistance of the circuit causing the erratic fuel gauge needle.

So my question is, can I obtain the correct specified wire and just re solder a new one in place of the kinked one? Probably someone here has already done this...I hope.

Check the DIY section. I believe Jeremy dissected a fuel level sender and outlined alternatives for repairing that wire.

Sixto
87 300D