Replacing the Fuel Sending Unit (pump) [by vmax1244]

[WOW_FCTR]

For the DO-IT-YOURSELFER interested in replacing the fuel pump assembly… well here goes.
You’ll need a lift that has extended arms on either side to remove the tank for clearance on the left side of the vehicle.
Luckily I have a good friend who lets me wrench at his garage. A big thanks to my Buddy whose name is Buddy!

Since the tank was so long I used a 55 gallon drum to rest the tank on. Could have used the tranny jack but it was not stable enough with 20 gallons of gas still in the tank.
Was a pretty straight forward job with removing the filler neck hose clamp and disconnecting the fuel lines front and rear of the tank and the pump leads.

Removed the tank crossbar, the front tank strap, the driveshaft and lowered the tank down onto the drum. Removed the rear strap and then dropped the tank.
Raised the car back up and blew off all of the dirt that had accumulated since 2006. Knocked the ring clamp from the pump and swapped out the old pump and O-ring with a Walbro replacement pump assembly that I picked up on eBay for $200.00.
The problem with the float assembly is that pivot arm hole became elongated and was causing the small wiper arms that runs across the sending units board to move in and out and away from the printed resistor.

The gap between the arm and the board was over 1/16 of an inch. No wonder the gauge would go crazy causing my check engine light to come on.
Very poor design if you ask me and in my opinion should have been recalled by GM since it is obviously an engineering flaw. Could have easily been prevented by having a 3 point plastic cover over the pivot point.
This would have prevented the arm from moving side to side with little or no wear.
R & R time was 2.0hrs. Now I’ll repair the old pump sending unit with my own design and will have a spare.