new sending unit gas do not work 40 ford any idea

If you figure out what makes it work right, let me know. I have tried bending float arm, resistors, cursing and prayer, and nothing works. Nothing but pure rip off and misleading advertising. There, I've said it and I'm glad.
 
I bought a universal sender. If you have a ohm meter, check float up and down should read something like Down 250 up 30 ohms.There are several gauges to pick from.
If you put the float in middle should read half.
What i,m saying is match the sender to gauge.
Look at Jegs fuel gauge and you will see what i mean.
I need a 250 /30 gauge.
 
My Bob Drake sender worked fine after I found some worn wiring and replaced it. Remember, 6 volt sysem requires full wire capacity. Lower current means lower reading on the gauge so any loss of current in the wiring is going to make the gauge read low.

Try the sending unit outside of the tank. Ground it good with a jumper them move it to various positions and see what the corresponding reading is on the gauge. Put it to the full position and see if the gauge reads accordingly, etc.

Some adjustment can be made by bending the arm. My gauge read high so I bent the arm so that the float wouldn't quite touch the bottom of the tank at the bottom limit. That made it read lower and more accurately. The higher the arm is bent, the lower the gauge reads. So, to get yours to read higher try bending the arm down so that it won't quite touch the top of the tank at the upper limit and see what happens. Careful though. Better for the gauge to read too low so that you fill up early than for the gauge to read too high so you run out of gas when the gauge says you still have gas.

Let us know how it goes.
 
hook the gauge up out of the tank, make sure you have it grounded good, then move the arm up and down slowly. the gauge is designed to react slowly to movement, if it wasnt the needle would bounce all over the place when stopping turning or taking off. if the gauge only reads part way check the arm riding on the windings in the sending unit, if it doesnt ride all the way on the windings when moved it wont read right, if it does check you gauge in the dash
 
Understand I'm no expert on this topic, and may be 100% wrong, but my son and I DID wrestle with getting a gauge and sender that would work together for over a year.

Our Conclusion: Repro sending units do not work with original dash gauges. At least that 's what we found with our '36. We tried different types of repro sender, none would do the job.

I believe it's because of the principle used by the King-Seeley gauges, if I understand it correctly a vibrating reed kind of contact makes and breaks contact both in the gauge and the sender. The simple resistor in the repro senders can't duplicate this.

We finally just settled with an original gauge and an original sender after many hours of troubleshooting. That was the only setup that we had success with.

A tip when working on this system, GROUNDS are critical. We ran a separate ground wire from the flange of the sender to a frame ground and then for good measure from there to the point where the positive terminal of the battery attaches to the frame.

I have seen posts from others who have had luck with repro sender, but we couldn't make it work until we went back to OEM parts.
 
Henryat1140 got it right. Also read the last posting on the following thread:
http://www.fordbarn.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2014&highlight=40+ford+gas+tank+sending+unit
Blown49 also explains it all here:http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=460919&highlight=gas+tank+sending+units

Henryat1140 said:
Understand I'm no expert on this topic, and may be 100% wrong, but my son and I DID wrestle with getting a gauge and sender that would work together for over a year.

Our Conclusion: Repro sending units do not work with original dash gauges. At least that 's what we found with our '36. We tried different types of repro sender, none would do the job.

I believe it's because of the principle used by the King-Seeley gauges, if I understand it correctly a vibrating reed kind of contact makes and breaks contact both in the gauge and the sender. The simple resistor in the repro senders can't duplicate this.

We finally just settled with an original gauge and an original sender after many hours of troubleshooting. That was the only setup that we had success with.

A tip when working on this system, GROUNDS are critical. We ran a separate ground wire from the flange of the sender to a frame ground and then for good measure from there to the point where the positive terminal of the battery attaches to the frame.

I have seen posts from others who have had luck with repro sender, but we couldn't make it work until we went back to OEM parts.
Click to expand...
 
I replaced my tank and sending unit with a Drake and haven't been able to get it adjusted right. Recently, I found that the float was three quarters full with gasoline. I've replaced the float and am now checking the readings on the fuel gauge for accuracy.
 
About a year and a half ago my neighbor bought three ‘40 Ford fuel sending units from Drake (he has 13 '40 Fords). When my neighbor installed the first sending unit it would read empty all of the time, he tried the other two and they did the same. He assumed the gauge was bad but when I grounded the wire the gauge came up to full. What I found was the pivot point for the float arm was so tight the float could not move, it would stay in what ever position it was installed in. At the time there was a big discussion on the H.A.M.B. about Drake’s defective sending units.
 
I built a '40 Ford in the early '60's and converted it to 12 volts. Used the original guage and sending unit and it worked! I have a '48 F-1 now and it is converted to 12 volts and the oraginal units work properly. I since put a '70's voltage regulator in it and it didn't make any difference. The regulator I'm talking about is the one that goes in '60's & '70's Fords. Drops 12 volts to 6 volts.
 
estout81 said:
I built a '40 Ford in the early '60's and converted it to 12 volts. Used the original guage and sending unit and it worked! I have a '48 F-1 now and it is converted to 12 volts and the oraginal units work properly. I since put a '70's voltage regulator in it and it didn't make any difference. The regulator I'm talking about is the one that goes in '60's & '70's Fords. Drops 12 volts to 6 volts.
Click to expand...

Do you mean voltage reducer instead of voltage regulator?
 
19Fordy,
It is one of those little rectanglar boxes that goes on the back of Ford insturment panels. It is wired in series with the power to the insturments.
 
I used an Auto meter sending unit. Autometer is based out of Sycamore Illinois. I had no troubles. Used a Drake SS tank for a 35-40 Ford, used Auto meter gauges. I would call Autometer to see if their unit will work with 12v. Their unit also came with easy to follow directions and the guys name who proudly assembled it. Best part is that his name was Paul.
 
19fordy -- they are called regulators. they have points inside and dropped the voltage down to 5.5volts. they were used on factory 6v king sealy gauges used on most 12v fords up to the 90`s
 
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