1964 Bird Fuel sending unit ??'s | Ford Thunderbird forum club group 1955-2005 models
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1964 Bird Fuel sending unit ??'s

  • Thread starter Thread starter ak7an
  • Start date Start date
ak7an
Reaction score
78
Thunderbird Year
1964
Spent the day pulling the dash apart on my 64 Bird, (hope I can remember how to put it back together😱), so could access the the instruments. Got the Temp gauge and the oil pressure gauge working, but didn't have quite the good fortune with the fuel gauge.
1st question on the the fuel gauge circuit. Which of the three connections on the sending unit is for the gauge? Using my ohmmeter I tested the three as follows.. upper left had 84 ohms to ground, upper right was open, lower center was 0 ohms to ground. So would the gauge wire go to the upper left? and the low fuel light to the upper right? I know the tank is not empty, I figures at least half full. Have driven around 120 miles since a fill up, but the gauge registers empty and from what I can find out the sending units are 10 ohms full and 80 ohms empty. Does this point to a float that is not floating and just sitting at the empty level? Which would mean a new sending unit..
Am I on the right track??
Thanks
Ed

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I had problems with my fuel gauge not reading properly on my 65. Turned out the float mechanism wasn't making proper contact inside the gas tank. Took the sending unit out of the tank, cleaned it up so it made better contact and it works fine now.
 
Spent the day pulling the dash apart on my 64 Bird, (hope I can remember how to put it back together😱), so could access the the instruments. Got the Temp gauge and the oil pressure gauge working, but didn't have quite the good fortune with the fuel gauge.
1st question on the the fuel gauge circuit. Which of the three connections on the sending unit is for the gauge? Using my ohmmeter I tested the three as follows.. upper left had 84 ohms to ground, upper right was open, lower center was 0 ohms to ground. So would the gauge wire go to the upper left? and the low fuel light to the upper right? I know the tank is not empty, I figures at least half full. Have driven around 120 miles since a fill up, but the gauge registers empty and from what I can find out the sending units are 10 ohms full and 80 ohms empty. Does this point to a float that is not floating and just sitting at the empty level? Which would mean a new sending unit..
Am I on the right track??
Thanks
Ed
Do you have a shop manual? It should have a wiring diagram. they are available in print and many are available on disc.
good luck to you. By the way I do not remember when ford changed when having a small voltage regulator that acted upon the fuel and temp gauges. If they fail the temp gauge usually goes to full hot and the fuel gauge to empty.
At any rate, good luck to you, J.
 
Do you have a shop manual? It should have a wiring diagram. they are available in print and many are available on disc.
good luck to you. By the way I do not remember when ford changed when having a small voltage regulator that acted upon the fuel and temp gauges. If they fail the temp gauge usually goes to full hot and the fuel gauge to empty.
At any rate, good luck to you, J.


Temp and OP gauges are working fine do its not the VR.. 84 ohms is the resistance on the upper left connection at the sending unit on the tank.. I do have a shop manual and wiring diagram, using those got me to where I am now.. PLZ read the entire first post, questions go from there..
Thanks
Ed
 
Temp and OP gauges are working fine do its not the VR.. 84 ohms is the resistance on the upper left connection at the sending unit on the tank.. I do have a shop manual and wiring diagram, using those got me to where I am now.. PLZ read the entire first post, questions go from there..
Thanks
Ed
Are you able to differentiate the wire colors from the wiring diagram? That shoud help. Look at wire origin and that may assist in which terminal it goes to.
 
That is what puzzles me more, wire colors that are at the sending unit do not match the diagram. I wound up running a new wire form the gauge to the unit.. I am think that for some reason the float on the unit is not floating.. I gues I will be pulling the sending unit out and inspecting.. Was hoping to avoid that one..😡
Thanks
Ed
 
it sounds like your wiring is intact and does point to a faulty float. Keep in mind if you need to replac it the OEM gauge requires a tapered potentiometer and some repacement are linear. Although it will work it will not be accurate. Hopefully if your float is leaky you can repair it with jb weld never tried it with gasoline so maybe soldering it would be a better fix. It s not that big of a job trickiest part is getting gasket (oring) to stay in place while reinstalling it I used a permatex product for just this purpose it works well and does not cure hard and kinda goopy when applying but it works.
 
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