I recently purchased an 83 300TD with the third row seats. Yesterday I found out the hard way that the fuel sender is not reading accurately -- thought I had a third of a tank left but no! I lifted up the storage compartment under the seat section (closest to the tail gate) but it is not there. Do I need to remove the entire seat assembly and then remove the storage compartment to access the sender? Thanks.

I found it easier to just remove the seat. The torsion springs for the seat bottom need to be disconnected to get the carpet out of the way. They stick into holes in the seat bottom and are captured under the hinges if I remember correctly. You need to remove the seat back to be able to slide the carpet section back and forth to get it out of the way. You will need a 46mm or 1-13/16 socket to get the sender out of the tank.

The slide rod for the float gets corroded and prevents travel. Be careful with the very thin Nichrome wire, easily broken! You can clean the assembly up, there are at least a couple of threads on how to service these type senders on the forum, do a search.

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1968 230 W110 +3.5 M116 & 4-Speed Manual
1985 300TDT S123
1985 500SEC C126

Thanks! I will remove the seat assembly then.