I got sidetracked a bit from the engine and transmission fitment with the gauge cluster which led being side tracked by the fuel system. The original gauge cluster was actually pretty nice and I originally had no intention of doing anything with it. It would be nice to have an oil pressure and volt gauge along with a tach, but I figures I could add those on later.



The T5 I had picked up was set up for an electronic speedometer and the original plan was to replace the tail housing with an early style one designed for a mechanical cable. After not being able to come up with a cable style speedometer tail housing, it hit me that I could kill 2 birds with one stone by buying an electronic speedometer and building a custom gauge cluster. Besides keeping all the gauges I wanted in the cluster, it got me out of having to make a custom speedometer cable. After years of calibrating speedometers with a couple of road tests then changing out drive and driven gears in the transmission, the idea of setting the speedometer by just pressing a button is kind of appealing too.





When I had the truck up in the air I decided to go ahead and drop the fuel tank so I could trace the sending unit wire for the new gauge cluster. I would also give me a chance to check the sending unit.




With the tank out, I found out 3 things.

1. I really wish I had drained the tank 10 years ago when I put the truck in storage. The gas had turned to varnish.

2. The original sending unit was junk and no longer available.

3. In spite of how large it looks, it only holds 13 gallons.


I’ve got the tank cleaned out now, but what a PIA. I’ve had good luck soaking tanks with Acetone in the past and that’s what I used this time….but wow has the price gone up on that since I bought it the last time.

The sending unit was not a big deal as I had a couple of new universal ones on the shelf. Fortunately the tank uses a sending unit that is separate from the fuel pickup and the universal fit with just a couple of little mods.

The 13 Gallon capacity bothered me a bit as I will likely take the truck on long trips. I’ve seen a few truck builds where people have used first/second generation Mustang tanks mounted under the bed behind the axel. I happened to have 58 Chevrolet tank in the back I had set aside years ago. It’s a little dirty on the outside, but absolutely perfect (and clean) on the inside, it also holds 20 gallons. It will be close but it looks like it should fit under the bed (I’ll probably have the fill neck come out behind the license plate).




I had to buy a new sending unit for the 58 tank which was reasonably priced, but the sender itself was not compatible with aftermarket gauge. Fortunately it was actually pretty simple to change the sender out to the new pickup.




Between the 2 tanks I’ll have 33 gallons of fuel. I’ll be using electric switch valves and with a DPDT switch I’ll be able to switch the tanks over and have the gauge read from which ever tank I’m currently using.

I showed Cade how the switch would be wired yesterday and we bench tested the switch, senders and gauge.




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