Great information. For those of you who have a TBird, the Casco gauge and sending unit kit works just fine.  All I had to do was bend the wire a little on the sending unit. 

Thanks!

Yes, it sounds as if the gauge "zero" probably needs adjusting - my gauge "innards" were built pretty "flimsy"; so, if yours is the same, be very careful - it seems very easy to damage!

I've never had a fuel sender apart: Photos are GOOD.

Please keep us posted when you are able to get to it.

Regards, JLB

55 Ford Crown Victoria Steel Top

Bergmanj, The info in the adjustment of the gauge is very helpful as there is no way the sender can be adjusted to raise the 266 ohms at E to something higher.

I opened the sender and found the expected wire wound resistor and wiper that is connected to the float arm,

I also found that when the float is at the bottom stop the wiper is already off the wire wound part of the resistor and the 266 ohms is the resistor only as it is grounded at the end opposite the terminal so there is no way that any amount of rod bending or stop repositioning will change the E reading so adjustment of the gauge may be the only option.

It may take me a while to get around to removing the gauge, the car is in a very small garage and I cannot open the door all they and will never be able to positon myself under the dash so I can see what I am doing with out opening the door. Since I retired I lost the use of the shop and am now confined to working in the driveway.

I may also look at fixing the original King Seely sender as I have read it is fairly simple and most of the time just cleaning the contact points restores operation

If anyone has any other ideas please chime in, we all need support to keep these cars running.  I think that collectively, this group knows more about Y Blocks and the vehicles they came in than the Dealership knew in the 50'S

Thanks Kevin

Kevink I did the same with my 56 but had to shorten the rod by bending a "Z" in it. Thanks for your photos...

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

Hey, GREAT reporting!  Should be most useful for sender replacements.

Another thing to consider: In my "playing" with sender/gauge calibrations in the past (fuel and/or temperature) I also had the gauges "out" to try and see what was "adjustable": both [King-Seeley] dash gauges on my 6V '55 had [rather crude] adjustments for "zero" and "span"; they "can" be re-adjusted to do some "correction".  However, the "zero", in particular, is VERY sensitive - which might actually be to your benefit in indicating "Empty", if you want to consider that as part of the "system" adjustments for correct readings.

Hope this is also helpful.

Regards, JLB

55 Ford Crown Victoria Steel Top

It appears tomorrow is not going to work out, I have been promised elsewhere so Itried a few more tests tonight.

first, with the battery charger on but still under 13 volts the gauge reads about a needle width higher than it did on just battery so it looks like at 13.8 (my regular charging voltage) the gauge is going to be inaccurate reading a little more than 1/8 above E when the sender is at the bottom of travel. I would rather it be inaccurate the other way and say E when you had 1/4 tank

Second, I tried putting 45 ohms in series with the sender wire, this made it read E when the float was at the bottom stop,  Perfect right. not exactly.   With the series resistor the gauge will only read 3/4 at the top stop. I guess this is because at E you have a 266 ohm sender + 45 ohm resistor = 311 ohms        At full you have a 35 ohm sender + 45 ohm resistor = 80 ohms.   Not a linear change in restance

I am going to play some more and see if I bent the bottom stop can the sender go past 266 ohms when empty, it would only need the wiper to go a little further on the wire wound resistor but I do not know if that extra length is there. I could then bend the float arm to calibrate further.  I guess the worst that could happen is the wiper will go off the end of the resistor, that would be an open circuit and would put the gauge well past E just where it rests with the key off, just do not know if it will do that without damage to the sender  Will report back soon

Brent and anyone else interested in the Summit sender

I tested it in the car (56 Fairlane) out of the tank, I disconnected the factory sender from the harness and connected the sender to be tested via jumper wires. The results are hopeful as this being a good replacement while keeping the stock King Sealy gauge

Photos of the Gauge and Sender at bottom stop, note gauge reads 1/8 tank while sender is at bottom stop. if you remove the wire the gauge will go past E so it needs more resistance than the sender provides.

Photos of the Gauge and Sender at 1 inch from bottom

Photos of the Gauge and Sender at 2 inches from bottom stop

Photos of the Gauge and Sender at 3 inches from bottom stop

Photos of the Gauge and Sender 4 inches from bottom stop

Photos of the Gauge and Sender at 5 inches from bottom stop

Photos of the Gauge and Sender at  6 inches, the top stop. I do not think the float can go that high in the tank as it would be above the top flange of the sender

In conclusion,I think this sender could be made to work with a small resistor in series to make the empty resistance more like 280 - to 290 ohms.  the car harness and ground thru the chassis may add enough resistance to correct this, I was using short test leads to the back of the gauge.

Only other thing I want to test is what happens at higher battery voltage, I was testing with engine off and 12.10 volts.  13.8 running may raise the readings slightly as 56 has no instrument voltage regulator.  Will see if I can run the same test with a battery charger on to raise the battery voltage tomorrow

Talk to Stuart at VINTAGE FORD PARTS. He is on ebay and might be able to help. I've found him very knowledgeable and helpful.
Tim in Florida

Ok, your cold beats my cold LOL.   I will try to get it done and report back. I want to fill the tank for winter storage ASAP but need to resolve the gauge problem first . If I go much longer I may as well let it go and take my chances with the 1/4 tank thats in it now.  Will do my best to get it done.

Thanks for the update.

Oh, come on - that's not cold - LOL: Your +11 o F temp. is in the tropics - we're going into -24 actual air temp coming Thurs. - Fri.  And - years ago now - I actually replaced Y-block rings and main bearings outside in -35 air temp weather: Young family and no choice on the weekend to be ready for Monday's work schedule. Years later in early Feb. of 1996 got called-in to work at my electrical utility power plant for cold-weather problems on my scheduled day off - arrived to find actual recorded air temp. at -65 on our calibrated weather station at 08:30 CST - was "outside" work; now THAT was cold! "Official" recorded temp. for MN that day was -54 - the thermometer actually broke at the NWS measuring site, so could not measure "actual".

Still really looking forward to your information as to success of "new" fuel sender working with original gauge.

Regards, JLB

55 Ford Crown Victoria Steel Top