1956 fuel sender tech tip ;)

[J. Gomez]

So my new fuel sender is in and and the old one was re-done and both bench tested it before placing the new one back in the tank, all is fine it reads “E” with the float down and ½ about half way and “F” all the way up. 

Place the new sender back in the tank and fill it with 5 gallons of gas, turn the ignition key on and the gauge verily reads above “E”.   

Hmm well the tank capacity is 20 gallons with no reserve as the modern cars, the gauge should read about ¼ pass “E”, but it is not.

Back to troubleshooting, remove the sender from the tank and redo the test again, all seems fine, so back to the Service Manual. Section 13 Fig. 13-10 show the distance of the sender float travel perpendicular from the arm pivot to “F” should be 3 ½”. 

Take my carpenter square, place it against the flat mounting face of the sender, center it on the float arm pivot, lift the float to “F” and read the distance. I have about 4 ½” well that is my problem float is too high.   

Re-adjust the arm until the reading is 3 ½” being careful with making the adjustment. Place it back in the tank still have the same 5 gallons as before, turn the ignition key on and “BINGO” now the gauge reads about ¼ pass “E”.

Just a tech tip before you place a new sender unit in the tank, make sure the adjustment of the float is done by not trusting the new sender to be correct. Else you may be driving yourself crazy by troubleshooting fuel gauge or other electrical issues. 

[Roger Zimmermann]

Many people are not aware of that distance. Thanks for the tip!

[6262]

Great hint, thanks a lot. My new sender works, shows 'F' when full but goes down to quickly, meaning the  needle advances faster to 'E' than the fuel in the tank (I prefer this to the other way round, though). This may be the culprit. I will search the '62 shop manual for a similar illustration.