Printable Version | Subscribe | Add to Favourites
New Topic New Poll New Reply
Author: Subject: Fuel Tank, Earthed?
The Baron

posted on 9/7/07 at 08:47 PM Reply With Quote
Fuel Tank, Earthed?

Dumb question for the day,

Does my Ally fuel tank need to be earthed to the chassis?

Cheers in Advance.

The Baron

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
dave r

posted on 9/7/07 at 08:49 PM Reply With Quote
mine is
the sender unit will be if you have one...
more likely to cause problems if some things are not down to earth

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
DRC INDY 7

posted on 9/7/07 at 08:52 PM Reply With Quote
Mine has a little eath lead from the fuel sender to the chassis

If you do not have a petrol gauge then no you dont need the earth

View User's Profile Visit User's Homepage View All Posts By User U2U Member
Litemoth

posted on 9/7/07 at 09:02 PM Reply With Quote
Simply drill a hole in the bottom of the tank and use a nut and bolt. Use a self-tapper if you can't get your fingers down the neck.

Seriously though, there must be good safety reasons for doing this? Aren't metal tanks supposed to be mechanically insulated with rubber or neoprene from their mounts so would always need earthing?
I can't remember seeing earths on production cars but they must have them.

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
Ian D

posted on 9/7/07 at 09:12 PM Reply With Quote
As the fuel is combustible you need to keep the fuel tank at the same potential as the chassis so there is not the possibility of a potentail between the two and a spark.

In practice highly unlikley but better safe than sorry.

View User's Profile E-Mail User View All Posts By User U2U Member
MkIndy7

posted on 9/7/07 at 10:39 PM Reply With Quote
"As the fuel is combustible you need to keep the fuel tank at the same potential as the chassis so there is not the possibility of a potential between the two and a spark"

As the cars are -ve earth Doesn't that mean any stray +ve wires could then ARC to the Fuel tank?.... if anything to stop it Arc'ing wouldn't you make it +ve or better still have totally isolated\insulated, or if anything those rubber earthing strips down to the ground to prevent static.

All a bit overkill really.

View User's Profile E-Mail User View All Posts By User U2U Member
dave_vic_ozz

posted on 10/7/07 at 09:04 AM Reply With Quote
This topic has had me thinking before. From what I have seen the +ve is connected to the sender, the sender connected to the resistor on one side the the other side of the resistor connected to earth. This way the wiring (read in theory) will not have a large potencial to chassis. The tank should be connected to the chassis so when you fill the tank (yes most have a rubber / plastic hose) the chassis and tank have the same potencial (as written above) so to minimize static sparks. Nylon clothing and the seats etc. The car is on rubber but when you fill the tank you most likely will have touched the car first. More cars are coming out with plastic tanks. Great insulation and good in a crash but real trouble for Clubman builders.

dave d.





Duratec into Clubbie

http://www.oz-clubbies.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5883

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member
DaveFJ

posted on 10/7/07 at 10:03 AM Reply With Quote
My fuel system is fully earthed, filler neck to tank to lp pump to hp pump to swirl pot to metal hp filter and all to chassis. better safe than sorry...





Dave

"In Support of Help the Heroes" - Always

View User's Profile Visit User's Homepage View All Posts By User U2U Member
MkIndy7

posted on 10/7/07 at 12:04 PM Reply With Quote
quote:
Originally posted by dave_vic_ozz
This topic has had me thinking before. From what I have seen the +ve is connected to the sender, the sender connected to the resistor on one side the the other side of the resistor connected to earth. dave d.


No quite, the +ve goes nowhere near the tank, the +ve feed only goes to the dial.

The sender is earthed to the tank and the float resists/moderates this earth to effectively give 0v for empty 6v for 1/2 full and 12v for full and supposedly quite analogue imbetween.

There is no +12 and -12v in the tank to either ARC accross, or to short and make the resistor hot.. unless there's a poor connection or problem with the guage.

[Edited on 10/7/07 by MkIndy7]

View User's Profile E-Mail User View All Posts By User U2U Member
dave_vic_ozz

posted on 11/7/07 at 09:15 AM Reply With Quote
Right on the money.

Got gauge and sender termanology mixed up.

+ve (+12Vdc) to gauge,
>
Gauge signal to sender (variable resistor)
>
Sender to chassis -ve (0 Vdc)

1000 appologies.





Duratec into Clubbie

http://www.oz-clubbies.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5883

View User's Profile View All Posts By User U2U Member

New Topic New Poll New Reply


go to top






Website design and SEO by Studio Montage

All content © 2001-16 LocostBuilders. Reproduction prohibited
Opinions expressed in public posts are those of the author and do not necessarily represent
the views of other users or any member of the LocostBuilders team.
Running XMB 1.8 Partagium [© 2002 XMB Group] on Apache under CentOS Linux
Founded, built and operated by ChrisW.