Digital fuel sender assembly

Hi everyone, first post so I hope someone can help me. I have zero clue about these absolutely cool vans as I never even knew they existed until recently when I unfortunately came across one in a breakers yard near me. The one there has a digital gauge cluster and was wondering if the digital sending float unit for the fuel gauge is situated in the top of the tank like other 80's Toyota's with digital gauges? And also do these have a single tank or dual tanks? The reason I ask is I've been searching on the internet but as with many of these old Toyota's there's not much specific info about certain aspects of them and neither me nor the young guys working in the breakers yard really know what to look for. I would really like to save these parts if I can so need to work out this info so I can assist the workers to help remove them for me because in this overly protective day and age in my country our laws prohibit me from going in and removing parts myself, if that were the case I'd be able to suss it out pretty easily. And is the sender the typical 80's Toyota digital one with the blue top plate to distinguish it from an analog one? Thanks in advance for any advice, Glenn.

And sorry it's supposedly a 1988 Super Custom Limited Hiace, from what I can find I think the model is YH51G but I'm not 100% sure on that. Thank you

Hello AE82 guy and welcome to the Forum

Your question is fairly niche and this is a fairly niche forum!

I think your best bet for searching parts etc is to head over to the Toyota Electronic Parts Catalogue (EPC) site. Now for my van (a LH119-RRMES) the link is:

https://toyota.epc-data.com/regius_ace/lh119v/114894/

You can modify this and enter the model or frame number from the build plate and when you search for the YH51G frame you get this page:

https://toyota.epc-data.com/search_frame/?frame_no=YH51G

This shows there are a number of YH51G- variants dated between 1982 and 1989 and you can hover over the additional codes to decipher them. They all seem to be petrol models, with the 3YU engine, which I know nothing about. Some were autos and some seemingly M/T.

I’m amazed that vehicles this old had a digital cluster but there you are.

Here’s the fuel tank system for a random YH51G- variant:

https://toyota.epc-data.com/hiace/yh51g/176774/body/7751/

While different to my van it seems fairly typical for a Toyota.

Any component with a tiny bit of electrical connectivity is covered in the ‘Electrics’ area and this can be difficult to comprehend and navigate.

Anyway here’s the gauges (called meters) and they do indeed seem to be digital!:

https://toyota.epc-data.com/hiace/yh51g/176774/electric/8301/

See here:

https://toyota.epc-data.com/hiace/yh51g/176774/electric/8401/

and scroll down to Scheme 7 for the fuel sender unit. That's your money shot!

From there you can head over to the Amayama site to look for OEM part numbers and the Amayama site itself can be narrowed down by vehicle options for parts, too. It’s worth searching both ways and looking on eBay etc etc.

Wonder no more, your search is over but the fun never stops!

Cheers.

p.s.  I’ve no idea whether the sender is digital or analogue but my guess would be it’s resistive like is still common to most vehicles. Sometimes sender units are digital in that they have a timed pulse and the number of pulses in a set time equate to a fill level. For example VW use a pulse unit to measure the engine oil level on some of thier vans; the pulses are decoded by an ECU. The picture on the EPC site seems to suggest it’s analogue-resistive.
Btw, the sender unit on my (diesel) van and the tank looks like this:

https://hiace-super-custom.forumotion.com/t4085-fuel-line-t-in-diesel-heater

You’ll need to scroll down a bit. I know it’s in a daft place to post and will move this someplace else, one day.

Just to add that you'll probably need to remove the tank to access the sender. It might line up with a hatch in the floor, but access will depend on what's inside the vehicle.

There are plenty of posts on here about removing the tank on Hiaces but your example is likely to be different. There are also a few YT vids to watch.

Good luck!

Thanks for the reply, yeah I've spent hours on Megazip goung through the pics but the Hiace stuff doesn't seem to be nearly as detailed as they are for the AE82's I'm usually into. I've found the fuel tank section but it doesn't really show anything that looks like a specific fuel sender with float in their diagrams which is what's confusing me a bit. And yeah I've looked and the tank definitely has to come out as there's no access from the top like there is with my Corollas. The guys that run the yard where the van is are middle eastern so there's a bit of a language barrier as well which is making things a bit harder as well haha. If Australian law allowed yards where you can remove your own parts I'd be fine but we're treated like kids now and the employees are the only ones allowed to do it. I've had a good look over the whole van and it's a real shame because it seems to be in great condition considering its age, motor must be blown or something. I've never seen so much brown velour in my life, it's so awesome I'm heading back during the week so now I should be able to work it out with the boys to get the gear out. Again thanks for your help