fuel level sender ...a different animal

[Kibokojoe]

Removed the fuel pump and sender on my sons 91 735i so I could clean the wires. Found out that the sender is a different design. Anyone ever opened up one of these beasts? To me it looks like there is a plastic tang that has been glued in to stop the Nut from coming out. There isn't a screw in the center of the nut like other senders. There are also clips on the side so you can pull the tube out and it is spring loaded

[Kibokojoe]

Found out on another site http://www.fileoffset.com/bmw/e34_sender_unit.php that you unclip the tube (which is spring loaded) and the innards will slide out. Very similar design with respect to opening up the sender.




Don't know why this did not happen the first time but when I unclipped it, the second time it just slid out. I cleaned the three wires using electronic contact cleaner and a medical q-tip. Got a little bit of brown off the wires. Sprayed the float contacts and tried to clean their contact surfaces the best I could with the wires in place. This design is much easier to work on then the old style. All I did was remove the sender and left the fuel pump in the tank.



Make sure the spring is in its proper place before reassembly.

I was wrong about the tang and nut. You need to work from the other end and pry out the clips to remove the tube

[genphreak]

Grrr. No user-sericeable parts inside eh? Looks like the way in will require a lot of petrol-safe glue to be used on the way out...

What glue can one use in the tank anyhow?

[Kibokojoe]

Yeah found out that I was looking at the wrong end. Don't need to bust it open. On the other end it simply slides open once you get the wires free from the clips

[yaofeng]

There are at least two different versions of the feul pump/level sender. On both of mine there is a nut to remove to take the level sender apart.





I notched a flat blade screw driver to remove the nut.

[Kibokojoe]

Looks like the guts are the same. The only thing different is how you get to them