Hey everybody, I know it'* been a while since I've posted. As one might expect, there has been nearly endless auto repairs here and there, between my two cars and my mother'* car, I've dumped over $5G into car repairs in a year.

So, approximately fifteen months after changing the fuel pump in my LeSabre, the pump died again. Had to have the car towed home from the grocery store - left my mother stranded, and as usual, the pump gave absolutely no warning. And, as usual, there'* 3/4 of a tank of gas I gotta remove before I can drop the tank. Fun is.

Now here is my dilemma: In the interest of expediency, and given that lately my fuel gauge seems a bit lazy in letting me know the tank dropped below 1/4 until I park nose-down on a hill, I'm thinking I might just get the whole pump/sender assembly. For Advanced Auto crap, ship-to-home only, I can get a Spectra brand (yeah, I know, it'* better to have AC Delco, but... CHA-CHING, provided I can find one) for $140. However, typical GM engineering insures that it will always be a PITA to get the RIGHT part...

Pump And Sender Assembly; Includes Fuel Pump, Sender, Float and Strainer; w/ Harness Codes: HEL, HEM, HEA.

OK, fine. Can't tell you how many times I've seen mid-year changes with GM. But if I don't have the tag on the wiring harness any longer, telling me which Harness Code I have, is there any other way to tell? Or do I just have to wing it and see if my fuel gauge reads correctly, and if not, get used to it being funky?

In my trunk I have a beautifully-intact option code label; would there be a code for the specific wiring harness used?

Well, I guess since it'* not winter like it was last time, I might be able to actually remove the bolt for one tank strap (spot weld on nut broke loose) and ditch the ratchet-strap holding the tank in.

As always, I thank you all for your invaluable insight.

And, just for clarification, I do not make a habit out of running the tank low since I put the last pump in. If it dipped to 1/4, I put gas in. (Although, as I've mentioned in the above post, sometimes it doesn't let me know the level has been dropping below 1/3 until I park nose-down on a hill and let the car sit overnight, and restart it.) And in the few months my mother relied on the LeSabre, she never let it go below 1/2. (It'* nice to know I've gotten her to listen to SOME of what I tell her about cars!)

...Now off to the Oldsmobile forums to deal with that pain-in-the-fanny Intrigue...

everyone that buys the store brand pumps or spectra or whatever complains about them lasting a year or two. not something i would do myself, gas tanks on old cars suck.

Yeah, I get that. I know these brands are less expensive for a reason...

SPOILER ALERT: Advance Auto, Autoparts International, Carquest are all competitors owned by the same company. So you're getting the same JUNK PARTS no matter where you go. Most of the small parts places, auto shops, and even big car dealers all get their parts from these craphouses. I almost wish we had an O'Reilly or a PepBoys nearby so our end of the state actually had options. I have a NAPA nearby, but everything has to be ordered unless you have a commercial account, hence the acronym "Never Any Parts Available."

Hell, a package of #194 bulbs I bought for my dash board from AA lasted a whopping FIVE DAYS (which would be four uses, two trips to work, two trips home). OK, fine, didn't need to see the upper end of my tach anyway... LOL

My "direct-fit" replacement radiator for the Mighty Max was worse than the original, and only spent 20 minutes actually under the hood before it was back to AA for exchange (MASSIVE leak in plastic inlet) - and another day lost while they had to order a SECOND one. And the overflow tube comes out the opposite side of the radiator as it should, and my one-month-old radiator cap didn't fit (went from OEM 13-lb to a GM 16-lb, and now my water pump leaks unless I let about 1/3 of the coolant leak out of the radiator).

DON'T READ THIS SECTION IF YOU DON'T WANT TO... IT'* A PISSED-OFF RANT!
OPEN LETTER TO AUTO PARTS MANUFACTURERS:
You will always make money from us. We like to do this work ourselves, sometimes out of necessity, but primarily because we enjoy wrenching under the hood. So give us quality parts to work with, because our cars are our pride and joy, and we also get pride from doing the job in the first place. You will always be able to bask in obscene profit margins from people like us that will always have telltale grease under our fingernails, walking around like hunchbacks, dragging our busted-up knuckles, after an all-day battle with automotive engineers' irrational designs. Please don't torture us further by supplying us with vastly inferior parts, because in the long run, YOU are losing money with excessive amounts of warranty claims. It'* sad that, unless I need the part in that emergency, my first choice of auto parts is now RockAuto.com, where my first thought is to go with OEM because there is no reason I should have to do the same exact job multiple times as I constantly exchange defective parts. Because everything consumer-grade you send the parts houses is crap, millions of backyard mechanics are going back to OEM. This will only effect your bottom-line long-term, but remember your basics of word-of-mouth advertising. Especially in the day and age of social media, where the entire world is privy to complaints. #YouReapWhatYouSow. #JustSayin. #GetItRightDouchebags.

OK, I'll jump off my soapbox. Probably hop over to RockAuto and Amazon. I went to AA first because I thought I needed the car running Saturday night (covering a newspaper route, 300+ Sunday papers won't fit in the Mighty Max) but I don't need to so the route until Sunday night (just found out) and Monday/Tuesday papers are pathetically thin, I can wait for shipping. I just hope my other job gives me enough time I can get under there and fix it before Sat. the 24th.

Still gotta find out which wiring harness it has. LOL Yeah, I went totally off-topic.

https://www.gmforum.com/general-gm-c...279335/page12/

sorry dont know anything about the harness, but if it comes down to it it looks like its a pigtail so you could always solder the wires to the cars wires. i think they used 0-90ohm on all gms to the mid 90'*. i did that on my inlaws old bonneville because the connector was intermittently failing

OK. I have no issues whatsoever with soldering and electrical work, it'* kinda my forte. That, and stereo wiring. I just didn't want to deal with a resistance mismatch; if they ohm out the same, and I don't end up with a backwards gauge, and the car runs well again, I'll do a little work if need be.

That happened once to a late-70s GMC pickup I once saw. After replacing the sending unit, the fuel gauge started working in reverse. Pain in the butt until you get used to it. LOL

i think all the 80'* and early 90'* cars used 0-90ohm senders, wasent till mid to late 90'* they started switching to the 33-240ohm