I've never had any luck playing mix and match with senders and gauges, but it might work.  Pulling the old bushing shouldn't be too hard, you might even be able to make your own tool with plumbing pipe.  When I installed a second sender in my right head, a short, maybe 6 inch, pipe threaded in and it was easily tapped into place.  

Don

"Would the smaller, newer style sending unit work with the gauge in my ‘56"

Simple and honest answer is no.

1956 and 1957 production used different electrical circuitry for TEMP gauges. The sender has to match the gauge and harness.

If you have the 57/ smaller sending unit insert, it can be reamed and threaded for the 56 temp sender in the car.

Another thought why FORD put the sender location at the cyl head is that the actual coolant temp is going to be greater there (as a result of two center cylinders exhaust valve placement) than it will be at the front of the intake at the coolant crossover. Different placement may also mean the gauge will read differently (as gauge/sender may be calibrated to read the temp coming out of the head). Different sender placement would affect aftermarket gauges also.

SBC used the same basic idea.

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You should use the sending unit that matches the gauge - therefore you need to use the 56 sender. 

There is an adapter that goes from a ring terminal to a female spade terminal (I have on on my coil) but it would look odd because you will have to use a machine screw to hold the two together.  If there is extra length on the wire, you can just cut off the ring terminal and attach a female spade terminal.  I don't know where I found the adapter and have never seen one on any display in a store.  Perhaps there is a seller of electrical supplies that may have them

{quote]MplsMike (8/29/2018)

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54 Victoria 312;  48 Ford Conv 302, 56 Bird 312
Forever Ford
Midland Park, NJ

I wonder why it takes so long to get back to this project? Just an update on yesterday’s work.

I bought the extractor tool to remove the bushing for the temperature sending unit and encountered two problems. First, there was a brass bushing inside the bushing. We carefully cut the threads and were able to finesse it out. Second, the Mummert intake manifold was in the way of the extraction tool - I “hollowed out” a portion of the tool so it would clear the manifold. At that point, the job became quite easy. The old bushing came out easily, the new one went in great and I now have the original temp unit installed and it is working.

We also installed an MSD box, a new coil and a Pertronix I unit. That job was only partially successful. The Pertronix unit didn’t work, so the system is still set up with points. I called the supplier today and went through what I have - they claim the coil I bought isn’t compatible with the Pertronix I unit. Oh well, an opportunity to upgrade to Pertronix II and buy an epoxy filled coil so I can install it horizontally (thanks to the recent post for that tip).

I drove it a bit last night and it runs like a scored rabbit!

MplsMike
'56 Parklane
Minneapolis, MN