1951 fuel sender

1oldtimer

1oldtimer

Well-known member
Are the orginal fuel tank sender worth paying the high price or will something like a Dennis Carpenter send work ok with a stock gauge. The Car is going to 12v but everything else is going back to stock or close.
 
Worth paying the price if you can find one. (in good working condition; lots of found old parts are a bad one that got replaced decades ago) Original King Seally senders are scarce.

All the aftermarket senders available today work on a different principal, really not compatible with the original gauge. May move the needle but will not be accurate.

Gauges (and their paired senders) are 6 volt only. When you convert to 12volt, you must install a voltage reducer to feed 6 volts to the fuel, temp, oil gauges. Just one more reason to leave the car 6 volt as it came from the factory.
 
I've worked on a few different cars over the years that I've converted to 12v (or already have been). The last one was my '41 P/U, I put NOS gauges in but it has a S/W sending unit. I used a Fuel Bridge made by Auto Meter to pair the 2 and it seems to work good.


The sending units that I've found are NOS and around $250. I might go the same route with the Fuel Bridge if I have to.
 
OldTimer1 and Jay are correct.

THE Dennis Carpenter gas tank sending unit will not work accurately with the original gauge - even if you reduce the incming voltage to 6 V.
 
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The fuel gauge interface modules seem to be catching on more these days. I'll have to try one at some point. TanksInc, Speedway, and other sources have them now but some are pricy.
 
I’ve purchased fuel tank senders from shoebox-central and they all have worked great…..I believe six mounting holes is for a stock tank and five holes is for an aftermarket tank….. I’ve used Tanks Inc. tanks and have great luck with them……the gauges are accurate in my experience……..E Don’t mean enough!……..Mark
 
rotorwrench said:
The fuel gauge interface modules seem to be catching on more these days. I'll have to try one at some point. TanksInc, Speedway, and other sources have them now but some are pricy.
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The Fuel Bridge I used on my '41 p/u didn't have any presets that worked, it has a function to manually add set points (E-1/4-1/2-3/4-F) after you chose the sender ohms range. Seems to work pretty good, but I'll look for an original sender also, the ones I've found so far don't have an arm or float attached...kinda universal from the factory.
 
Another question are all of the King Sealy fuel sending unit the same (electrical portion) and the only difference being the float arm?. Meaning can I buy a used one from a car/truck that used the KS setup and modify the float arm?.
 
1oldtimer said:
Another question are all of the King Sealy fuel sending unit the same (electrical portion) and the only difference being the float arm?. Meaning can I buy a used one from a car/truck that used the KS setup and modify the float arm?.
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In my experience, yes, they are the same.
 
1oldtimer said:
Another question are all of the King Sealy fuel sending unit the same (electrical portion) and the only difference being the float arm?. Meaning can I buy a used one from a car/truck that used the KS setup and modify the float arm?.
Click to expand...

1956 King Seeley is a one year only internally different gauge and sending unit combo, the sending unit is DUAL SPADE and STAMPED "12v" always and cannot be used for any gauge setup outside of OEM 1956... the same is true for the oil pressure and temperature gauge pairing which is 1956 gauge and sender only. 1955 King Seeley fuel senders are dual spade but have no such voltage stamp and provides the same output values as all of the prior gen King Seeley fuel sender internals (though there is a ver1 and ver2 design internally that does not practically matter). Short answer: All 1955 and earlier King Seeley fuel sender internals are identical in their intended output.
 
I have found many used senders in the past that can be made to work properly with a little effort, i.e. cleaning the points, recalibrating them, and swapping the float arm as necessary. It's easy to fit a 1960's ford gauge regulator in series with the gauges for the 12V conversion, but I always stick with 6V, with a good (Optima) battery, Halogen H/L bulbs, correct size battery cables and good earth/ground connections 6V can be just as good as 12v.
 
Thanks everyone. I’ve found different tanks for sale with the original senders for sale (mostly trucks), I figure if I get a clean one I can make the sending unit work and resell the tank. I can look into the Shoebox Central one also and use the original as a spare at the very least.
 
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