Brief Description: Installing and Calibrating Fuel Probes
I made up the wire harnesses for the fuel probes earlier. The probes still needed to be trimmed to the proper length. I found that a length of 13.25" left the tip of the probe 1/2" from the tank bottom per the plans.
I would not suggest cutting the probes with a set of wire cutters or snips. If the inner brass rod touches the outer aluminum casing, the probe will give an inaccurate reading (I used a tubing cutter available at any hardware store for cutting copper tubing). Save the small plastic "doughnut" spacers that encircle the rod to maintain this stand-off distance.
I also found that if after cutting the outer casing, if you cut the brass rod a little longer and beyond the plastic "doughnut", it is easier to slide the spacer down the rod and then cut it to length than trying to stick that tiny spacer back on the rod after the end has been deformed from the cutting.
CAUTION: DO NOT use the supplied gaskets for a template until you check that the gaskets actually line up with the hole patterns in the probe mounts. On one of the gaskets the hole pattern was not the same as the other (which I had used as a template) and I ended up having to off-set a second set of holes from the first set that I drilled in the right tank.
Taking a recommendation from Bill's web site, I ran a ground wire to each tank from the main ground block as shown in the second photo below. Hopefully this will add a measure of safety from static electricity during refueling.
The newer style probes have a low fuel warning circuit. I installed an indicator light on the main panel and set the light for each tank to come on when 2.5 gallons of fuel remains in each tank. The probes were calibrated to show empty when 1/2" of fuel remains in each tank.
