Gas Gauge

[Raven Rider]

Well the saga of the non working gas gauge is over, I now have a working gas gauge.  I have been working on getting the gas gauge to work in my Ranch Wagon.  I just bought it about  months or so go and the gas gauge did not work, the previous owner put a new gas tank in it the day before I picked it up and assured me the gauge sender was ok because he performed an ohm test and it passed.  He also gave me 2 extra gauge panels and I started working on a solution by swapping voltage regulators and different gas gauges doing all the different tests I have read on this forum.  "It can't be the sender it is ok" so I finally ordered the replacement Ebay T-Bird sender and put it in the same position the original was in and it did not fix the problem.  I tested both of the senders and they both seem good, the gauge had a full swing from empty to full  but the original had a float full of gas.  I rotated the new sender 90 degrees and it started to work as designed it must have been rubbing on the inside of the tank.  I spent around 15 - 20 hours on this simple little problem.  Moral of the story always check the obvious and just because someone tells you it is fine check it any ways.   

[lalessi1]

It always seems like the simple things take the most time...I am still trying to get the parking brake to work!

[hiball3985]

The originals have an offset bend in the arm to keep the float off the side. I've seen cheap repops  only have a straight arm.

[BWhitmore]

Jim is correct.  The Ranchero and wagon use an offset arm on the sending unit.  As far as I know, no one reproduces the sending unit for a ranchero or wagon.

[Raven Rider]

Well that would explain why I had to rotate the sender 90 degrees clockwise.  Thanks for that information I can see now the sender I removed was also a replacement sender from a long time ago.  Any way the sender I got off of ebay works but the arm is too short so I bent it down a little but for under $45 it is a bargain.  It will show full for a long time and it is off the bottom of the tank by about 2 inches so there is a good reserve built in too.