'78 280Z fuel sender

[dmorales-bello]

Does anyone have any experience with the reproduction fuel senders sold by MSA ($200) and Zcardepot ($80) for the '77-'78? The only difference I can see in their descriptions (other than a huge price difference) is that the Zcardepot unit has an OEM-like electrical connector whereas the MSA one needs you to splice in their particular connectors.

Has anyone used either sender?

 

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[w3wilkes]

Dr, There just happens to be a recent discussion over in the Help Me section.

 

Wilkes

[dmorales-bello]

Good morning Wilkes. That's great! Thanks so much for the link.

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[gwri8]

Yep, and in another recent discussion about the Z car depot fuel sender, I purchased one and it works great. I don't have any idea as to why the MSA one cost more.

 

Edited May 25, 2020 by gwri8

[dmorales-bello]

Dr, There just happens to be a recent discussion over in the Help Me section.
 
Wilkes

Read the mentioned post. Has anyone else used a sender from Zcardepot? MSA?

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[dmorales-bello]

Yep, and in another recent discussion about the Z car depot fuel sender, I purchased one and it works great. I don't have any idea as to why the MSA one cost more.
 

Did your unit from Zcardepot come fitted with the factory harness connector as is shown on their site?

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[gwri8]

Yes, no problems at all.

[chaseincats]

 

2 hours ago, dmorales-bello said:

Read the mentioned post. Has anyone else used a sender from Zcardepot? MSA?

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Ya, a few other members of my local z club picked up the zcardepot sender units when they first came out a few months ago and all work great - yes its the factory connector, its plug-and-play.

[dmorales-bello]

Thanks for the opinions, guys. It's much appreciated. I just put my order in with Zcardepot. [emoji106]

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[dmorales-bello]

... and the new fuel sending unit from Zcar Depot arrived this afternoon and it's installed and working!!

Because the reserve fuel light had stopped working on my original unit I will confess that last week I had tried installing a fuel sender I purchased from MSA last September when they just got them for the '77-'78 280Zs but one of the contact rivets snapped off when I slid the connector onto it. Very bad quality! Not only do the MSA units come with different type connectors that you have to splice in after cutting the stock connector from the sender, the quality of the riveted contacts on my unit was much less than adequate and failed miserably. Fortunately it happened before the final stage of installation and not after everything was closed up again. Additionally the unit is more than twice the cost of the @zcardepot.com unit I just received which plugged right in and is working flawlessly. I spoke to James at MSA who's always very helpful and he said he would talk to their manufacturer about the problem but electrical parts cannot be returned, much less after 30 days. He will get back to me on it but I might be looking at a total waste of $200! If they at least repair it I will keep it as a spare or pass it on to a fellow forum member in need.

Anyways...I designed a "wrench" out of 2" PVC pipe that enabled me to very easily re-install the lock ring over the sender and that makes the job a piece of cake. By using my Dremel, I made 4 slots on the inside edge of a 6" straight piece of PVC so that the 4 crests that jut out of the lock ring would fit into those slots. A 90 degree elbow at the other end of the straight piece of pipe provides easy rotation of the lock ring in either direction. I used my original lock ring since it was in great shape and lightly sanded and coated with anticorrosive bed liner paint the area around the access port. Pics attached.

Thanks again everyone for all the good references regarding the @zcardepot.com sender.

 

[AZDatsun]

Looks good my fuel sender arrives Tuesday from zcardepot I might try that pipe method


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[AZDatsun]

Fuel sender is in I used a very long skinny screw driver to tap out the lock ring and to tap it back in.

My gauge now reads like how it should my older one would never go past half full (or is it half empty jk) It also moved the needle over a lot faster. Now just need to see if my fuel light actually works.
Thumbs up!



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