The entire gas tank, including the sender, was rusted out on my '55 bird. When I replaced the tank, I got a resistive "6V" sender unit. I converted to 12V, but I use separate aftermarket 6V gauge regulators on both the temp and fuel gauge circuits.

Temp gauge works normally - just as pessimistic as stock. Fuel gauge only reads 1/2 of a tank, and I can bend the sender rod to determine which half it will read. I've decided that the bottom half is most important, so the gas gauge reads "F" most of the time. Once it comes of the peg, the needle drops slowly, and then very fast... definitely non-linear. When it reads 1/4 tank, it's time to fill up... usually about 10 gallons.

I'd prefer a genuine 6V king seeley sender unit, but they seem hard to come by. I could replace both sender and gauge with reproduction units, but this setup works OK for now... more of an idiot light than a fuel gauge.

Sorry my above post didn't come through well (no spaces between some of the words). I had copied and pasted it from my Word software. Won't try that again.

Anyway, the jest of my post is that I don't see how any Sender based on a variable resistor design can work properly with the original gauge, since the original design was based a pulsating signal being sent to the gauge via a bi-metalic point set in the original Sender. That's why I'm working on an electronic design Sender that mimics the original Sender.

Oldcarmark,

Just FYI (mostly for others' - I believe that you already know this): The '55 & '56 King-Seeley gauges and senders were NOT the same: One set was specifically designed for 6-volts (the '55), and the other for 12 (the '56).

Some folks have "successfully" used the original 6-volt design in their 12-volt conversions - though, I doubt they will last nearly as long as changing to the correct 12-volt set.

Thus, I would caution other's to be careful about the e-bay offering as being for both years.

Regards, JLB

55 Ford Crown Victoria Steel Top

There's a couple of replacement senders on Ebay anyone looking for one might be interested in.Item # 350704820280-all 55-56 Fords.Item # 330761181983 all 57-59 Ford and Mercs.Looks like he has sold quite a few of each and his feedback is 99.9%.

  

I replaced my sender recently and found when I tested the range on the gauge as DryLakesRacer mentioned. It would go to empty too early but only went up to 3/4 so I bent the stop and reshaped the arm so that the float would not hit the top or bottom of the tank plus changed the length to give a full range. After all that stupid me then discovered it had a grub screw for adjusting the arm on the rheostat which I then utilised for fine tuning it. I spent ages moving it small amounts trying to get it wright.

I'm still not completely happy with it as it reads overfull and stays there too long, but the important thing is it reads empty at the right time. Thinking about it, if I left the arm and the stop alone, and only adjusted the grub screw I think it may have been better than it is. I might get around to pulling it out again one day but there are too many other jobs right now.

That particular sender does give the full range on the gauge of my T Bird.

Starmistblue – I have “put you down for one”.

An electronic re-engineered replacement fuel sender that mimicsthe same electrical input to the gauge as the original sender did.The original King Seely sender sent on/off pulses to the gauge whichwas controlled by a point set in the sender. The original design hadnothing to do with the resistance of the sender. The fuel gauge canbe made to move using a variable resistance sender (which the presentreplacement senders appear to be) sending constant (non-pulsating)current to the gauge. My testing shows the following for constantinput (non pulsating) to the gauge:



Volts Gauge Reading

7       F

5       ¾

4       ½

3       ¼

1       E



So, you can see that there just isn't enough resolution usingconstant voltage from 1 to 7 volts. Just 2 volts difference wouldgive a reading of ¼ or ¾. The original design used 12 volts (for1956) for all readings, but varied the time it was applied to thegauge to give readings from E to F.

I am past some major hurdles in the design, but it will stillprobably be several months before I have the prototype working.However, it will initially be for 1956 Fords cars only. Ifsuccessful in selling a few, maybe I can make modifications to it for1957 Fords and 1949 – 1955 Fords.



Bill Newland

I think Carpenter lists one with the correct floats and resistance. Works in my '57. Also you may be able to shorten the float arm to allow more angle before it contacts the tank.

Frank/Rebop

Bristol, In ( by Elkhart) 

Ten years ago I replaced my gas tank and like an idiot I purchased a new sending unit and being ever more stupid I threw the original one away before I installed the new one.
new one was way off, so I bought another and a few years later bought another, now the last one was the best as it reads 3/4 when full.

Just seems to me with everyone else having the same problem this would be a money maker for RE-BOP to either modify existing ones or make his own.
Put me down for one.

My tank depth is 6"+ at the hole. So I made the float movement the same; hitting the empty and full stop on the reostat. The replacement float assembly could move between 7-8" and leaving it as sent with my way of checking the gauge would read between 3/4 and 1/4. My "creative bending" actually shortens the length of the rod. Did the bending of the rod while holding the sender in my bench vice. Took many, many trys.

The supplier of the sender is the company that makes the replacement tanks and said it should work "as is" but it did not in mine. Their price was much "less expensive" than the others I have found. The rod to the float of the replacement and the stock rod were both 7-8" long The resistance of the of the reostat was the same for the one I bought and the original in the tank.

I took no pictures but as I remember I took a 4x4 about a foot long and screwed the sender to a side edge with one sheet rock screw, laid it in the trunk, conected the wire coming back, and used a twin alligator jumper to ground it to the tank. Slowly move the float arm and watched the guage. It takes time to move so this is not a fast process. I had about a half a tank of gas when I did this and when I was done that's what it read. The car was on level ground.....Good Luck

56 Vic, B'Ville 200 MPH Club Member, So Cal.

You don't happen to have a picture of that do you?
Mine is only 3-5/16" depth and the float is only 3-1/16" long so I'm installing a nub and it still only reads 3/4".
It's driving me nuts as well.

Claim to fame is the car was used as an extra in the movie Diner with Micky Rourke, Steve Gootenburg, Paul Riser and Kevin Bacon.