1981 mercury cougar Fuel Tank Sending Unit

[j-man]

I cannot seem to find a fuel tank sending unit for the guage anywhere! I tried to cross reference to the fairmont and still no luck. Anyone else have this issue? I searched here as well and all the tank topics are about EFI conversions.

[roadkill]

XR7 or Coupe/Sedan/wagon?

[j-man]

Just the base Cougar. Looks like the Grenada.

[Dean_T]

You can scratch Cougar wagon - the only year the Fox Cougar had a wagon was '82.

The 1982/'83 Fairmont/Zephyr may cross over as well as the carbureted '83/'83 Fox LTD/Marquis sedan only (wagons use a different fuel tank).

I don't think the '78-'81 Fairmont/Zephyr fuel sending unit is available either. There just isn't too many parts left for our older cars.

[BBCFORD]

They are a bugger to find. I had to replace the sender in my 80 T-bird about 15 years ago when the windings on the sensor broke down and turned to rust. In my case, I swapped from digital gauges to an analog fuel gauge and I'm pretty sure the analog and digital sending units and floats are not the same.

You might be able to have someone restore your current sending unit with the correct wire, if that's what happened to yours. They pop up on weebay every now and then too. The only other option is finding a salvage yard that doesn't pull and crush the fuel tanks, ...since so many salvage yards seem to do this now. I also seem to recall different fuel tank sizes within 80-82 model years.

Does your car have an analog or digital fuel gauge?

[j-man]

It's an analog gauge. I Can't believe its so hard to find.

[sleeper]

Mine worked from my box top. i dont know how welll but you are welcome to it.

[Stormin' Norman]

My 1979 wagon unit still works decently, but I removed the unit from the 1978 Zephyr 4 door sedan, and other than the float and the mesh filter, both replaceable, the unit is repairable. I de-rusted it in a molasses bath for a few weeks (the donor car had sat for over 12 years and the tank was ripped when they moved it in the JY.)

Then I saw that the arm and unit looked pretty sorry (pitted from rust), but it moved freely. Now these older ones are all metal, no plastic sensor to fiddle with, so it seems to me that a good arm and sensor could be tack welded or spot welded in place. Here's a good DIY page on repairing and testing them:

http://www.fordification.com/tech/fu...ding-units.htm

And this page will give you a Part Number for your car's options (V6, I4, V8, turbo or non, etc.
http://www.fordpartsgiant.com/1983-m...gar-parts.html

Then use your regular search engine (I use BING.COM, because Google loads a lot of junk sites). Punch in the P/N, and see what you get. I've found parts that come from 1956 fords and mercs that fit mine.

You might try this site too, once you get the part number. If anyone has an NOS, this site will list them and how many they each have:
http://www.rearcounter.com/

Also, check out the http://car-part.com/index.htm service, once you know that part number. You'll be searching by part name, but the resulting list will likely show part numbers or vehicle details.

And of course:
http://www.coolcats.net/help/gasgauge.html


Good luck!

[BBCFORD]

That's some good info there on the senders. Hopefully j-man can get his sending unit back up and running.