56TBIRD fuel gauge

[Royal Ryser]

Anyone have a surefire method of determining what's wrong with a fuel gauge that won't work right? Mine always reads about 1/2 full, even when the tank is full or empty.
Any ideas about testing the gauge or the sending unit would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Royal

 

[joe 1950]

an old easy test is to take the wire connection apart at the tank then ground it to the body or frame make sure you have a clean surface to ground to with the key just in the on poss. the gauge should go to full then when you take the ground wire off the gauge should go to empty if this all happens then the wiring and the gauge are all good the problem is the sender in the tank

 

[k1787]

Do you have an original 56 Ford gas tank sender in the tank?

 

[morrisgauge]

1956 is the only year that King Seeley produced the 12 volt bi-metallic points style sending units/gauges. You definitely need to have the correct sender to run the gauge.

www.morrisgauge.com

 

[Royal Ryser]

Do you have an original 56 Ford gas tank sender in the tank?

Yes, it is the original sender. Sorry for the delay in answering.

 

[miker98038]

Morris is correct. Those K-S gauges are different. There was a very good article on setting them up over at Yblocks forever. I can't find it, and I suspect it didn't survive the last software upgrade. There's some other articles in other forums, if there isn't one here. IIRC, there's adjusting screws on both the sending and gauge unit. They don't respond instantly, and affect each other. The article gave the process to set them up on a bench.

That said, if it only reads one level, I'd pull the sender. If a 56 is like my 55, there's an access plate in the trunk that lets you do this without dropping the tank.