Hello all...I have a 6 volt '55 ford V8 Y-Block that came without the stock dual temperature sending unit setup. An aftermarket sending unit is in it's place on the driver's side head and the guage hangs under the dash. I want to make the original temperature guage in the dash functional again.

This past winter, I bought the two sending units the specs call for; a single-pole and double-pole. I read that the single-pole unit goes in the passenger side head and the double-polled unit goes in the drivers side head. I also bought the wire that connects the two. I expect the wire that is dangling from the wiring harness is the lead that goes to the guage in the dash...

...but...I get the car out of storage and go to install these parts and find a freeze plug in the passenger side head where the single-pole temp sending unit is supposed to go. Now I am confused. Anybody out there know what might be going on?

The dual senders are for a flathead.  The '55 Y would only have a sender on the driver's side at the back of the head.

John - "The Hoosier Hurricane"

The 1955 Ford V-8 does indeed have two temperature units, one in each head. Maybe the heads where replaced at sometime? According to the book on is a temperature sending unit and the other is a "thermal switch". The reason for this is "the possibility of one bank operating hotter than normal due to restricted flow".



You will need to get a bushing with the proper threads for your sending unit (unfortunately I can't remember the size, there are two bushings available). Knock out the plug in the passenger head a install your new bushing (press fit).



Many vendors carry these bushings, Tee-Birds, Larry's, Carpenter, Mac's, etc;


BOB

Sorry guy's, this will be my last post. The site dropped me three times, I have rewritten this three times and it took me ~ 45min to 1 hr. to post this response to help Redline. I'm really frustrated right now and I have better things to be doing with my time...

BOB

Bob, the delays affect most of us at sometime, what i,m saying is if you get heldup on the freeway driving home do you walk instead? i know jim and the guys monitor the site. Go work on the bird and come back to it.

  AussieBill            YYYY    Forever Y Block     YYYY

 Down Under, Australia

Bill, you are 100% correct. I just got a little (lot) frustrated because I wanted to help the guy and I had to rewrite it so many times. But I went and had a cold one and figure NEXT time I will just write my thoughts in MS Word and copy and paste it to the site.



Thanks alot...

BOB

Thank you for your time committment & informative response. I think what you said makes sense. I assumed someone must have screwed-in a plug into the threaded fitting on the passenger side when the original sending unit(s) were removed for whatever reason. They may have been long-gone before I ever came along. The wiring was a total mess for everything. I have fixed every light, guage, horn & indicator on the car. This is the last thing I have to get working. I will look for the fitting you are talking about and consult with my car club guys to find out how do install it.

I too had a lot of trouble posting my question earlier today. I was all done typing it in the box and hit the preview button and all I got back was something about "...must use more than HTML characters..."? Fearing I'd loose it all, I copied the text into Notepad, changed the font to Courier and then opened a new post and copied it back in. I almost gave up as well! 

Are you sure about this. My 54, which was stock, had only one and the drivers side head. My 56 TBird has only one (same side) and the catalogs (CASCO-TBird and Dennis Carpenter-car) only show one. The last dual senders were the flathead (53 - maybe 54 in Canada)

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

Paul, I am sure as I had a '55 Ford with this set up and everything in quotes in my response is right out of the Ford Shop manual on page 141 as I am looking at it a I type. Even has a picture on page 141 figure 30. One is called the sending unit, the other a thermal switch.



Besides I believe the man already stated he purchased the units, he just was unsure how to install them???

BOB

I have two 55 Fords.One of them,I know is absolutely the way it left the factory.It has only one sender.It's in the left head.The other car has only one but I don't know for sure the history of it.

 

Paul,

Boonville,MO