Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Last year I purchased a fuel sender for a 57 Ford from D Carpenter as mention in the X-reference for my 56 Executive. It never worked right. When the tank is full, it read near 1/2. Yesterday I removed it to see if the float was off adjustment. I pushed the float to full, but the gauge read 1/2. Gauge will go to full when grounded, so it works. Are these Ford gauges the wrong resistance? Any ideas?

If it is the correct year and model Ford sender it should work. Many have used them. If you have an ohmmeter, you can check it. With it disconnected from the car, place one meter lead on the terminal and the other to the metal cover.

With the float at the empty position it should read around 80 ohms and with the float at the full position around 10 ohms

The reading is as follows; empty .132K, full .032K. I'm not into math, but is this 132 & 3 ohms? In any case should this sender work?

That number certainly isn't right. It could be a bad sender or a meter that is not too precise on that scale. It could even be a sender for a different car although a chart put together by a Ford supplier listing popular ranges for various car makes doesn't list anything close to those numbers.

Typically the King-Seeley gauges we used from 51-56 need the 10 full, around 80 empty. The Ford suppliers chart says 73 at the empty end but most other sites or stores selling universal senders say 80.

Probably wouldn't do any good to complain to Carpenter now since the sender wasn't used on a Ford. Maybe just cut the losses and get another one. Kanter now sells repro senders for the 51-56 at around $95. That's fairly close to the price others are selling the Ford senders for now.

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I took another look at it & found some junk on the circuit board of the sender. It sort of works "better". When sender is at full, the gauge reads a little over 3/4. So 1/2 tank would be at 1/4, and so on. This is probably Chinese junk sender anyways. I'll need to just get an authentic type as you suggest or an NOS Ford unit. Not plastic & solder. Thanks for the help.

I'm looking at Casco's catalog for 55-6-7 Tbirds and they list a 57 Ford sending unit for $79.63. You can see it online athttp://classictbird.com/

I checked it out. Thanks Randy.