Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

Owen, can you tell me the ohms of resistance on my temp sender? I was told on here some time ago that it is about 10 ohms. My gauge i think is reading higher than it should be. I'm in the process of putting a manual gauge in the head to get the true reading. But, want to purchase new sender. Voltage shouldn't matter, just ohms of resistance, correct?? I've seen the service bulletin about the regulator between the temp and fuel gauges. My Patty does not have that regulator. Thanks, Brian

Sorry, can't help with the ohms but perhaps someone else can. But for sure your Patrician should have the instrument voltage regulator, and perhaps that's your problem. Is the gas gauge also misbehaving? You know what the regulator looks like, right?

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My gas gauge is fine. I just looked at the bulletin, and there is nothing between the temp and fuel gauges.

The resistance will be in the same range as the gas sender. Approx 75 ohms cold and 10 ohms hot but the problem is knowing what Packard specified for the upper range or hot. Typical senders have a range of "hot". One might be indicating hot at 220 degrees, another might be 240.

I have no idea if this one would do the job but NAPA has a sender that is 1/4-18 NPT thread and 11.5-13.5 ohms at 220 degrees. They don't give the resistance at the cold end. It is the Echlin TS 6464 as used on the 56 Mercury and is around $11.50. I don't remember the thread size on the heads but if it screws in it might be worth trying. If it works you can let us know.

Just by memory but I believe the NPT for the 54 temperature sensor is much larger than 1/4 NPT, perhaps 1/2".

The sending unit is 1/4 npt in the 359 head. I looked up the Service Counselor details. Vol. 27 no. 4. I will look at my engine #. They discontinued the regulator and installed an updated temp sender.

Thanks BrianG for that info, it's a dull day when you don't learn something new.

I can confirm that TS6464 from Napa as well as the Standard Motor Products TS-4 work just fine, as I've used both, and they read about the same. I had previously been using an aftermarket gauge (Sunpro) which after a few months of use happened to fail on the way to the PAC Western Regions tour. Napa got a TS6464 in for me at 8am the next day and I installed it in the parking lot.

In my '52, the gauge reads the following at these approximate levels of resistance: (readings correlated to the letters TEMP)
-35 ohms = "T"
-29.7 ohms = Left edge of "E"
-24.2 ohms = Between "E" and "M"
-18.5 ohms = "M"
-14.2 ohms = "P"
-8 ohms = pegged on/past the H mark

Incidentally, the sender I tested read about 14 ohms at 212 degrees, and 25 ohms at around 170 degrees.

Following up on this, here are the readings for the Standard TS4 senders as I measured them with my Fluke 88V:

Ohms Temp
221.3 73˚
112.1 103˚
88.8 114˚
71.5 124˚
55.4 135˚
45.6 144˚
37 150˚
32 157˚
27 167˚
23.5 180˚
22 185˚
20 194˚
19 200˚
17 203˚
14.5 212˚