Universal Fuel Sender

Old Fogey UK

The original fuel gauge / sender on my 1934 H8 have never worked at all.
I tried a cheap universal replacement sender I bought on eBay. It had an unspecified resistance. 
It sort of works - when I turn on the ignition, the gauge goes up to quarter full and then just stays there irrespective of how much fuel I put in.
So, I've bought another more expensive  universal sender. This one is adjustable to suit tank depth. It is 10-180 Ohms resistance, which I understand is correct for the gauge. It looks like the type sold for mid-30s Fords.
The only problem is that the instructions say it's to be used on a positive earth vehicle and my car is negative earth.
Will it work OK ?
If not, is there a modification I can do to make it work ?
Or have I just wasted my money (again !) ?

bob ward

I've bought a 10 to 180 ohm sender from Dakota Digital, its a variable resistor type and doesn't care about polarity. With a bit of tweaking of the sender stops to reduce the ohm range I can get it to operate my 35 H8 fuel gauge reasonably accurately, PM me for the ins and outs of the process.

A word of warning, the gauge will burn out quickly if you hook it up to the 6V battery without the sender in the line. 

https://www.dakotadigital.com/index.cfm/page/ptype=product/product_id=112/mode=prod/prd112.htm

40indianssgmailcom

If using a constant voltage regulator with a 6 volt output, will that work with the stock gauge and sender?  .5 volt more does not seem as though it would harm anything and I think would make for a slightly faster gauge response if noticeable at all

tigermoth

If you have a core..a coupe of years ago John Wolfe told me than can restore the King-seeley senders. I had a few life events and have not sent the unit in yet.

http://antiqueinstrument.com/index.php

regards, Tom

Old Fogey UK

Thank you all for the advice. It looks like getting the thing to work is going to take more expertise than I have. So I will get an auto electrian to see if he can successfully install it - once the UK comes out of Coronavirus lockdown, of course !
The original sender unit I took out of the tank looks nothing like the illustration in the Procedure Manual and I guess it was something Old Norris Smith put in when he owned the car as a lash-up to try to get the gauge working. I think it's probably a waste of time having it rebuilt as there's no guarantee it'll work afterwards.

Old Fogey UK

Bob - I have just looked at the link to that Dakota Digital sender and it looks identical to the one I've bought. A good sign, perhaps ?

BigSky

I picked up an eBay sender and did a few mods to it to get it to work for my 37 Hudson & it works well.  PM me if you need more information.

barrysweet52

Petrol is an interesting fluid. It doesnt conduct electricity - at our voltages.

MikeSheridan

And of course the liquid doesn't burn. Only vapors. When I was a teenager, we'd put a little gasoline in a cup and set it outside when the temperature was 20 degrees or so and throw lighted matches into it. It always put out the match. Don't try this in the summer !

Geoff

The only way you will get consistent reading will be if you regulate the voltage, as in later units, which have a 5v regulator to the gauges.  However, it will be "near enough" without it.