[1953 Homer]

I have a 1953 ford with the stock fuel tank and sender. The stock guages are being replaced by after market, but I need to know the ohms range of my sender before I buy a new guage to match. (I don't want to drop the tank and pull the sender to measure with meter) Can anyone help me out here? If you know the value or have one on the shelf that can be measured, it would help me a lot. Thanks for the help............Mike

[Joe G]

If memory serves me, Fords didn't have a resistive fuel sender back in the 6 volt days (pre-1956). Instead, they had a cycling style sender that pulsed like a gauge regulator, except the pulse rate would change as the fuel level changed. Similar to how temp senders work on Ford flatheads. I could be wrong, maybe Ford started using resistive fuel senders before they switched to 12v electrical, but if yours is a cycling style sender, it will not work right with an aftermarket gauge.

I would buy a fuel gauge that comes with a new sender. Most aftermarket gauge sets come with all the proper sending units for fuel, oil pressure and engine temp.

Hope this helps...

[DanielC]

I am working on a 1947 CJ2A Willys. The gas gauge in it did not work. I checked the sender for ohms, and it is infinite all through the range. The sender is bad. The jeep has a 6 volt system.
The parts guy I get a lot of stuff, from said he needed to know if the gauge used high resistance for "full" or low resistance for "full"
I pulled the gauge out of the Jeep, and hooked it up to a six volt battery, and 25 ohm potentiometer, and used that to check if the gauge worked. It did, and about 0 ohms was "full"
The gauge was not damped, it moves immediately when the resistance changes. Modern gauges are damped, they move slowly, they use a heated spring to move the pointer.

[1953 Homer]

Thanks JoeG.

You are exactly right, it is not a normal sender. I found my shop manual and it confirms much of what you said. I also dropped the tank (no gas in it yet) and pulled my sender and checked it with an ohm meter. NO linear variable resistance; it changes, but with no real consistency. Thanks for the info and the advice, I will look for a guage and sender that are compatable with each other.

Any suggestions on a brand or good (cheap) place to buy?

Thanks again.........Mike

[DanielC]

I am really not sure about all the details on a fuel gauge sender on a vehicle older than I am, but I suspect the sender might of has a fairly smooth change in resistance when it was new, or at least newer.