What did you do to your Willys today? January 2020

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Am I seeing this right? We are more than halfway through the month and did not start a thread for January? Well, I hope I'm not creating a duplicate. 

A few weeks back, my fuel gauge was stuck on “Full.” It does
this from time to time and usually a couple raps on the top of the sender cures
this. This time it didn’t. By the time I got around to investigate, I put a few
miles on that full tank before I realized I was about on fumes. Not too many
more and I would have been stranded. 

I suspected the two-year-old Omix sender was dead. Just to
be sure, I pulled the original gauge and cleaned the terminals and the dash
ground. Since this was the first time I had it out, I decided to strip off all
the orange paint around the bezel and glass. Why don’t people take the few
minutes to pull the gauges before they paint the dash? Anyway, I got it cleaned
up, repainted and reinstalled. It still read “Full.”

A couple days later, I drove down to Summit Racing and
picked up a new sender. The had in stock both the Crown and the Omix version.
The Omix actually looked better. The Crown was stamped out of thin metal but did
come with a rubber gasket. 

After pulling the driver’s seat, removing the old sender and
getting the new one installed. I was happily done. Unfortunately, the gauge
still read “Full.” That is what I get for assuming it was the sender. Five
minutes of testing before I installed would have shown it to be the gauge and
save me $30. 

I looked on line at both the Omix
gauge, and the Crown
gauge. I was not thrilled with either one. Both did not have the original two
pin combination mount and terminal along with the bracket center ground spring.
Also, I think the Crown unit had an opening for a lightbulb. Both of these go
for around $20

After enquiring with Army Jeep Parts, I found out that they
had a different unit
in 12v that had the original design. The $48 price was double and I had to pay
shipping, $18, when the others I could have just picked up at Summit. I got
them to come down to $10 on the shipping. I figured I would give them a try. 

The gauge arrived yesterday and I just installed it a few
minutes ago. Nice unit. The face is very close to my original 6v gauge. The
mount and terminals are as original. It appears to work just fine. This looks
like a better unit than either the Crown or Omix. Time will tell. 

Now, I just wish it was warm enough to go out for a spin. 

Micah