So, one of my latest endeavors has been working through an old fuel sender for my Jensen Healey. These old senders are such simple things, based on resistance and utilizing fair amounts of very small gauge wound wire. This sender, once I removed all the rust and debris, is no different.
I went through normal channels looking for a replacement unit, but these things are scarce these days, and my only option was to bodge a unit from a different car. I opted to take the third route, rebuild the unit myself. I figured that sinc thes were so simple it should be no big deal, right?
Well, everything came apart ok. Once I got inside the unit it was a matter of removing the old rivets that held the innards in place. So, then it was off on my normal saturday parts runs to go get supplies. The winding wire from the unit is 30 AWG wire, somthing I recognized immediately from the days of playing with magnets and build your own circuit kits as a kid. So I ran over to my local radio shack. I'v been rather sad about the decay of the local radio shacks for a while now, but they have what I need 50% of the time and I figured this stuff was relatively normal, so it shouldn't be hard to locate.
I was wrong. I should have known when I walked in and the employee asked me if I needed help. I responded, "a roll of 30 AWG wire." He pointed me to the speaker cables. Thn I went and explained it to him, and he went to look it up on the computer. Then I went digging around in the parts area in the back. Well, that wonderous parts area of my youth is now only 5 feet wide and has almost nothing useful. He then came back to me to let me know that they didn't stock it. Frustrated, I looked around and realized that Radio Shack isn't Radio Shack any more. Instead it's a cell phone / speaker cable / remote control toy store.
I've lost a treasured place, and it makes me sad.
And finally, I did find a source for the wire. I had to buy it online because noone stocks it in a gauge smaller than 26.
