Repairing a fuel tank sending unit on a JD X475

chevy · Mar 30, 2012

I received the Service Manual for my JD X475 this week. I found how to test the fuel tank sending unit so I could find out why the fuel gauge does not work. The worst problem is getting to the the fuel tank to be able to remove the sending unit. This requires removing the seat & the rear fenders. So I was going to wait until I needed to do some other work on the tractor before digging into this.

That time came a lot sooner than I thought it would.
Today while I was rolling the yard, one of the arms on the seat suspension broke. Since I had to remove the seat suspension to weld it, I decided to go ahead & check out the sending unit.

I unplugged the sending unit from the wire harness & removed it from the tank.
I hooked up an ohm meter to the black & black/white wire & moved the float up and down.
The ohm meter showed the correct resistance. 6 ohms when the float was down to 103 ohms when the float was up.

I them moved the float rod in and out. When I did this the ohm meter went to 0.

I looked closer at how the float worked. It is very simply made. It has 2 points on spring steel tabs that rub on a board & is held in by a plastic band that snaps into place & 2 other plastic tabs. I took it apart, slightly bent the points away from the rod & put it back together.

Now the the ohm meter reads the correct ohms no matter how I move the float rod.

I welded the seat suspension arm & put everything back together. I hope it lasts a long time, because a new sending unit is is over $260 at my dealer.

Now I just need to figure out why the hour meter does not work.

jenkinsph · Mar 30, 2012

chevy,
Nice write up and pictures, glad you could fix it yourself.:thumbsup:

kingofbytes · Jun 20, 2014

Any chance you can repost the pics....I'm having an issue with my sender and they want $250 for a new one. Baa.

deerseeker001 · Jun 20, 2014

I bought a after market one,think it was 50-60 Bucks,works great.

kingofbytes · Jun 20, 2014

deerseeker001 said:
I bought a after market one,think it was 50-60 Bucks,works great.

Great, can you provide a link to the place you bought it from?

RetiredCarGuy · Jun 23, 2014

I put a complete pump and sender assembly in my 2005 X575. It solved a multitude of problems: starting, stalling, erratic fuel gauge readings, etc. Components that are submerged in any type of fuel, don't last forever.