From what i am reading the lift pump fuel pressure sounds like an important thing to have a gage for even in the first Gen trucks..... I thought it was just a 98.5-2002 24 valve thing.

Is this truly important to measure??? If so... what it the best way to get the sending unit attached to the hardline from the fuel heater/filter to the injection pump? Does someone make an install kit? or would you just cut the line and use some rubber fuel line with a barbed Tee?

Would it also be smart to swap to a piston lift pump before the origional diaphram pump fails?

 

The easiest way is to use a tapped banjo bolt from Geno's Garage in place of the stock banjo bolt coming out of the filter head. It has an 1/8" NPT port so you can just thread the sender in. Of course, I always have to make things really complicated, so here's mine:



The banjo bolt is all the way to the left, then a ball valve in case of a leak in the gauge plumbing, a draincock to replace the bleed screw, a snubber to damp the pulses from the pump, and finally the line to the fuel gauge.

Is it important to have a permanent gauge? Nah. You ought to put in a tapped banjo so you have a convenient test port if you need one, but it's not critical. It is nice to have the gauge, though. It lets you run the fuel filter until it's restrictive instead of just changing it based on time or mileage. My filter is going into its second year.

If you have big HP plans the piston lift pump is worth doing. For what you have in your sig, the stock pump is OK.