Hey everyone! Im trying to get my fuel gauge working in my 86 F150 with the 4.9L. Priced out a fuel sender and they want $200+ for a new sender. I have an 87 sitting here for parts so for kicks I pulled the fuel sender out of the tank. I think I can pop the fuel sender off the pickup assembly of the 87 and it will pop into place in my 86. Question being: When did ford change the ohm value range on these senders? I know it was after the bull nose 80-86's but was hoping that it was in the 90's and that this sender would work in my 86?? Anyone know for sure what year they changed??

Thanks!

 

I believe it was 87 when they changed it, but I have heard different on the internet. And they way Ford liked to do mid-year changes, I would check it first before installing it. If you have a ohmmeter you can check and compare it.

 

We ran into this at work on the 5.0 Coyote swap we are doing. We used a tank from a '87 as that's what was on hand and a sender, 87 was the change over 85 and 86 was the same style sender as the 87 but used the older reverse pattern as found on the earlier senders.

 

Yup, '87 was the changeover year. Up through '86 full scale is 10 ohms and at empty it is 73 ohms. I don't know what the resistance values are for '87, but they did swap to high resistance for full and low for empty.

 

I believe its 120 ohms full and 15 ohms empty. I know we installed one in the truck and with no fuel in the tank it was reading 3/4 full.

 

16 and 153 ohms for the bricknose trucks.
I used the wrong senders and they read empty when full and about half full when empty.