The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay fuel gauge

Hey guys I'm trying to put a original type fuel gauge in a 52 Chev. trk. mounted on a S-10 frame.The problem is the fuel gauge is 30 ohm and the fuel sending unit is 90 ohm.Does anyone know how or if I can get this to work?

you should be able to get a 'universal' type 30 sender that'd fit the tank - check NAPA and such, likely be a special order item, but they are made

Bill

....isn't this where a reducer bolted to one of the guage terminals comes into play. If so they are available from the parts vendors I know...and probably locally?

...or do I have this backwards?

the reducer is for going to 12V with the original sender/gauge - prolly have to be done as well assuming the truck will have updated engine and 12V .... it occured to me the vintage vendors will likely have the adjustable universal senders too, and they do, like this

Bilkl

A few different options here. I know a couple guys that have ended up using the old S-10 gauges by stashing them in the middle of the dash, one guy I talked to was able to gut just the fuel gauge out of his to use. These guys were just doing this as a temporary measure until they decided or could afford what they really wanted in the long term, Aftermarket gauges.

A really temporary and cheap solution would be to wire up a cheap multimeter and stash it where you could switch it on and see what the current resistance level is, kind of a high tech version of testing the level with a stick in the tank.

In the case of wanting to use and keep the stock gauges.. The best solution would be to add a 47 Ohm resister (1 Watt Min.) into the system to add extra resistance. Another option is to add a 50 Ohm potentiometer, mounted on an "L" bracket, in this way, you can "Fine Tune" the readout by setting the pot for the MOST accurate readings.
This info came from a couple bookmarks I had in my file.. (http://www.hotrodders.com/forum/gm-fuel-sending-unit-conversion-30-ohm-106069.html http://www.oldengine.org/unfaq/oddbits.htm)
Let me know the route you go and how it works out..
Mongo

I have mine hooked up with just a voltage reducer on the power supply. It reads full until I have about 5 gallons left in the tank then it will start to wiggle. It is kinda like riding a motorcycle with nothing but a reserve switch. Eventually I will get caught too far from a gas station if I don't fix it right.

Speaking completely out of my rear, and past my bed time, can you bend the float rod so that the variable resistor only reads a third of the full scale?