# How To: Massey Ferguson 165 Universal Fuel Sending Unit



## westbay6 (Oct 10, 2020)

Our Massey Ferguson 165 tractor's fuel gauge has never worked. The fuel gauge was bad but I was able to order a new one (p/n: 1074336M9) for $20 here (https://www.ebay.com/itm/Massey-Fer...3?pageci=93f0953a-e509-4395-9135-e5fb1a012f84). Unfortunately the fuel sending unit on this tractor had been removed and replaced with a blank cover plate and new replacement sending units (p/n: 511967M1) aren't available. There are two fuel tank & sending unit styles for this tractor and mine had the later style, with the sending unit close to the rear of the tank. I expect that the part I used below will work with the earlier style as well.


Fortunately, the 5 bolt fuel sending unit mounting flange is an SAE standard and generic aftermarket sending units are available! The Massey fuel gauge is supposed to show empty at 40 ohms sender resistance and full at 240 ohms sender resistance. Tanks Inc sells a sender for Stewart Warner gauges that's just the opposite, 240 ohms empty and 30 ohms full. After I confirmed with them that I could mount the float arm backwards and reverse the reading, I bought the unit for $35 (p/n: TAN-SW) here (https://www.tanksinc.com/index.cfm/...t_id=276/category_id=184/mode=prod/prd276.htm). Installing it was simple and their instructions are solid. You adjust the swing pivot point to the middle of the tank height and adjust the float arm length to reach the top and bottom of the tank at each extreme of swing travel.


When I tried it all out, the brand new (cheaply made) fuel gauge wasn't reading full when the universal sender was putting out 240 ohms. I could have rolled the dice that a warranty replacement gauge would be better calibrated but I found that adding a 39 ohm resistor inline with the sender wire brought the needle very close to full and still caused it to read empty when the float was all the way down. 


I've logged about 25 hours on the new fuel gauge and sender and they're working great! It's nice to not have to carry a clean stick and wonder when the last time I checked the diesel level was. I imagine this universal unit will work on early 165 tanks and other MF tractors with a 40 to 240 ohm gauge. Check to be sure the arm has room to swing in your tank and you should be good to go.


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## sixbales (May 18, 2011)

Excellent post westbay6, thanks again for sharing.


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## Hoodoo Valley (Nov 14, 2006)

More detailed than a shop manual. Keep these coming westbay!


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