1997 Landcruiser.
Here is a simple mod to monitor low coolant tank and low windshield washer tank contents. Yesterday I went to the farm supply and stopped at the U-Pull-It yard on the way back. I got the sender from something like a 97 Buick and one from a Cadillac. They were very very common. I got three at $3 US apiece. They mount by just pushing them into a hole grommet fashion. I drilled a 1 ½” hole in the coolant overflow tank on the radiator side. If you do this favor the front of the vehicle side very slightly as the tank is sloped this way a bit on the bottom. If you hit dead center as I did, not to worry as it will still work fine. What I would recommend is running the wiring through a delay timer set for maybe a minute. This way you have to be more truly low on fluid as opposed to sloshing. In other words the fluid must read low for a minute before the alarm light comes on. The timer I used is an ELK-960, although you can use what you want. The Elk-960 can be found at Hosfelt Electronics for $19.95. Search for ELK-960 and look at the bottom of the page. I wired the timer up so it worked but was concerned as the relay was staying on. I talked to ELK Electronics (great people) and they provided me with a better solution. See wiring pic.
The coolant tank holds 36 Oz. at the full line; 6 Oz. at the low line. The sender can be modded in a couple ways. As seen in the pic, heat the female part a little to make it easier to pull apart. One way to lengthen the sender is to just put in back together one click. This will lengthen it about 3/8” and the alarm should come on with about 2” on fluid left. Maybe use a little epoxy. If it is lengthened with the universal vacuum coupling it makes the alarm come on at about 1 ¾” from the bottom which is 12 Oz. left. I think either the little extra weight of the adapter or just the sender slide not working smoothly causes the discrepancy as the adapter legthens the sender about ¾” and is really about as low as it will go.
My washer bottle is really buried so it was hard to see and measure, but I think this mod should easily work with it. From the measurements I could get, the length might have to be changed a little.
One caution is I don’t know how the sender will handle hot rad water as opposed to washer water.
Bill
Here is a simple mod to monitor low coolant tank and low windshield washer tank contents. Yesterday I went to the farm supply and stopped at the U-Pull-It yard on the way back. I got the sender from something like a 97 Buick and one from a Cadillac. They were very very common. I got three at $3 US apiece. They mount by just pushing them into a hole grommet fashion. I drilled a 1 ½” hole in the coolant overflow tank on the radiator side. If you do this favor the front of the vehicle side very slightly as the tank is sloped this way a bit on the bottom. If you hit dead center as I did, not to worry as it will still work fine. What I would recommend is running the wiring through a delay timer set for maybe a minute. This way you have to be more truly low on fluid as opposed to sloshing. In other words the fluid must read low for a minute before the alarm light comes on. The timer I used is an ELK-960, although you can use what you want. The Elk-960 can be found at Hosfelt Electronics for $19.95. Search for ELK-960 and look at the bottom of the page. I wired the timer up so it worked but was concerned as the relay was staying on. I talked to ELK Electronics (great people) and they provided me with a better solution. See wiring pic.
The coolant tank holds 36 Oz. at the full line; 6 Oz. at the low line. The sender can be modded in a couple ways. As seen in the pic, heat the female part a little to make it easier to pull apart. One way to lengthen the sender is to just put in back together one click. This will lengthen it about 3/8” and the alarm should come on with about 2” on fluid left. Maybe use a little epoxy. If it is lengthened with the universal vacuum coupling it makes the alarm come on at about 1 ¾” from the bottom which is 12 Oz. left. I think either the little extra weight of the adapter or just the sender slide not working smoothly causes the discrepancy as the adapter legthens the sender about ¾” and is really about as low as it will go.
My washer bottle is really buried so it was hard to see and measure, but I think this mod should easily work with it. From the measurements I could get, the length might have to be changed a little.
One caution is I don’t know how the sender will handle hot rad water as opposed to washer water.
Bill
