85 Spree gas tank hookup

blue85 · Post by **blue85** » Tue May 30, 2006 6:04 pm

Hello all, I am new to this site. I have a 1985 Spree that I bought new, but have not used in about 15 years. It is in excellent shape. The problem is that the fuel that was in the yank turned to a solid and ruined the tank. I was able to pick one up on ebay which was in near mint shape. The problem I am writting about is that when I went to hook it up, I had extra wires. I downloaded the service manual and found that the tank (which came with everything) must be from an 86 as it has 3 wires, but my 85 has 2. The original one from the 85 is absolutely no good. How do I go about hooking up the tank?
Thanks for any help.

-aL- · Post by **-aL-** » Tue May 30, 2006 6:07 pm

i would try leaving out the wires that werent hooked up to the old one, if thats possible

Kenny_McCormic · Post by **Kenny_McCormic** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 7:53 pm

i have the exact same problem but i have an 86 spree with a 85 tank
could someone please design a circuit that would alow 86 sprees to use 85 tanks

darat · Post by **darat** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 10:34 pm

just play with it and see if it works right or u can use ur old spree's tank level thing in the new one.

Post by **noiseguy** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 10:15 am

You guys know that the Spree service manual's in tech docs, right? It has the wiring diagram.

Anyway, I looked over the diagrams. There's a change in 85->86 on the way the tanks connect. I would first try to reuse the original sender in the replacement tank, or get a replacement tank that's the right year.

The following is "try at you own risk." I am guessing that this will work based on the diagrams. If it does work, I'd like to know so that I can move this to tech docs. Basically, you ground the Bu/W wire in both cases.

Also, remove the sender from the tank until we know this works. I'm concerned on the '86 sender that the full 12V across the sender might burn it up. Catastrophic results if it's in a full tank of fuel.

For the 84/85 wiring harness to '86 fuel tank:
Connect tank Y/W to harness Y/W
Connect tank Bu/W to harness G
Connect tank G to harness G

For the 86 wiring harness to 84/85 fuel tank:
Connect tank Y/W to harness Y/W
Connect harness Bu/W to harness G
Connect tank G to harness G

Let me know if this works. There's a chance that the '86 gauge cluster is wired differently internally, so that this won't work. In that case it may toast your '86 fuel gauge if you leave it hooked up. Best to just tap the Bu/W wire to ground and see if the gauge responds appropriately, or buries itself to one side or the other. If it buries, disconnect it, it didn't work. I don't see this happening on the 84/85 gauge, it's meant to see 12V across one side.

Kenny_McCormic · Post by **Kenny_McCormic** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:29 pm

leme go and try that

Kenny_McCormic · Post by **Kenny_McCormic** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 7:44 pm

it works but it reads backwards (full is emty and emty is full)

berreta22 · Post by **berreta22** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 8:15 pm

if it reads backwards i think you may have the ground and power wires mixed up? I dunno. what you think fellas?

Post by **noiseguy** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 1:25 am

Kenny_McCormic wrote:it works but it reads backwards (full is emty and emty is full)

OK, try this then:
Connect tank Y/W to harness Bu/W
Connect harness Y/W to harness G
Connect tank G to harness G

The sender is a black box, I'm having to guess how it's wired.

mopedman · Post by **mopedman** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 1:41 pm

it dosn't realy matter is it that hard to just open the gas tank and look inside to see how much is left

Kenny_McCormic · Post by **Kenny_McCormic** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 6:53 pm

thank you it works perfectly!!!

berreta22 · Post by **berreta22** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 7:01 pm

way to go noiseguy!! I would have figured that out but it looked like you beat me to it.

Post by **noiseguy** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 5:29 pm

What ever happened to Blue85?

darat · Post by **darat** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 9:23 am

i dont know good question.

blue85 · Post by **blue85** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 7:32 pm

Sorry I'm late getting back to everyone. I have been out of town. I plan on trying this on the weekend. Thanks for the help. I will post the results