1936 Electric Fuel Gauge Calibration

Bursonaw

Bursonaw

Senior Member
Can anyone tell me what the procedure is to calibrate a fuel gauge and sending unit or tell me where I can find the procedure?

I do have a working fuel gauge and sending unit, however it reads full when the tank is full and it reads empty with 6 gallons still in the tank. The gauge has been converted to 12V using a Runtz voltage reducer. I also have several used gauges and sending units, however I have not found a combination that has any semblance of reading correctly. Any help would be appreciated.

Tony


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Are you using an original sending unit or a repo unit? In general the calibration is the position of the float in the tank.
 
Things to check. The float itself to see if it is fluid tight. Then the position of the arm/float, it needs to be at the top of it's travel when the tank is full and just above the bottom of the tank when it is full swing down. There is no calibration within the sending unit itself (there is, but it is a calibration resistor and not sure anyone would know how or what to change it to).

Might try moving the sender unit arm through it's full range outside the tank and see if you can get the correct reading on the gauge and then measure the distance the arm moves. Then compare that to the depth of the tank.
 
JSeery said:
Things to check. The float itself to see if it is fluid tight. Then the position of the arm/float, it needs to be at the top of it's travel when the tank is full and just above the bottom of the tank when it is full swing down. There is no calibration within the sending unit itself (there is, but it is a calibration resistor and not sure anyone would know how or what to change it to).

Might try moving the sender unit arm through it's full range outside the tank and see if you can get the correct reading on the gauge and then measure the distance the arm moves. Then compare that to the depth of the tank.
Click to expand...


This is a good point. I have adjusted the gauge itself to match the sending unit and it reads correctly with the sending unit at full travel. (Full and Empty) When I put the sending unit in a 1/2 full tank the gauge reads 1/8 tank. I can try and bend the float arm and also check to make sure that the float does not rest on the bottom of the tank when empty. Before I bend the float arm I wanted to check if there was an actual procedure to calibrate the gauge.


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I have this in my documentation. It is a 1951 fuel sender assy listing from Ford.
It shows measurements for most 6v and 12v Ford factory fuel senders.
Upon further review (with a magnifying glass) the date is 1961 not 1951.
 

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