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Canadian Poncho Homepage -> Canadian Poncho -> General 58-64 Full Size Forum -> 59 Parisienne fuel sending unit calibration
Post Info TOPIC: 59 Parisienne fuel sending unit calibration
JoeyJoeJoe


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59 Parisienne fuel sending unit calibration
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Hi all, just put a new sending unit in my 59 parisienne (thanks 4SPEED427) and the fuel gauge is reading higher than it should. I took 10 gallons out of a full 16 gallon tank to do the swap so it should have read under a half a tank when I installed the new unit. Instead it read around 7/8 of a tank. At least it's not buried full like it was before. Any ideas, faulty gauge, etc? I put a fresh ground wire from the sender to the body so that should be good but I used the original power wire as it apoears to be factory. Checked the pigtail with an ohm meter and it appears to be serviceable.



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seventy2plus2


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Did you check the resistance of the unit before installing? If I recall, it should have read about 5 ohms when empty, and 100 ohms when full.
I don't think there's anywhere to do calibrations.

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70 2+2 convertible
70 2+2 hardtop
70 Parisienne hardtop

 

 
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4SPEED427


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Usually those Spectra senders are pretty good but maybe the float needs to be bent up a little bit? Bending it up should make the gauge reading lower with the same amount of fuel in the tank if my calculation is correct.

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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles 

1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars (now converted to a "factory" 4 speed)
JoeyJoeJoe


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seventy2plus2 wrote:

Did you check the resistance of the unit before installing? If I recall, it should have read about 5 ohms when empty, and 100 ohms when full.
I don't think there's anywhere to do calibrations.

 Of course not because that would have been the smart thing to do. Thought I might get lucky and all you have to do is spin the gauge. At least its easy to get out. 



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JoeyJoeJoe


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4SPEED427 wrote:

Usually those Spectra senders are pretty good but maybe the float needs to be bent up a little bit? Bending it up should make the gauge reading lower with the same amount of fuel in the tank if my calculation is correct.

 Thanks for the tip, don't know if I would have thought of that. I'm going to run the tank empty and see if I can estimate just how much to bend it. 



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DonSSDD


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Hook it up out of the car to ground and power and then move the arm up and down and see how the gauge reacts. Spectra Premium is usually good quality, the ohm resistance of the sender varies over the model years. The shop manual has a good troubleshooting section on this IIRC.

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63 Parisienne sport coupe (The Big GTO), black, maroon interior, 409 4 speed; former owner of a 59 El Camino, 63 Corvette SWC, 62 Chev Bel Air SC.
1963- Pontiac top selling car in Canada

Mahone Bay, NS Still not old enough to need an automatic
oshawacliff


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JoeyJoeJoe wrote:

Hi all, just put a new sending unit in my 59 parisienne (thanks 4SPEED427) and the fuel gauge is reading higher than it should. I took 10 gallons out of a full 16 gallon tank to do the swap so it should have read under a half a tank when I installed the new unit. Instead it read around 7/8 of a tank. At least it's not buried full like it was before. Any ideas, faulty gauge, etc? I put a fresh ground wire from the sender to the body so that should be good but I used the original power wire as it apoears to be factory. Checked the pigtail with an ohm meter and it appears to be serviceable.

 Put the gauge back in the tank to see where it is indicating on the dash.   

Take the gauge out and bend the float a slight bit to accommodate for the amount of fuel in the tank.

Reinstall the gauge and check the dash for the reading.  You may have to adjust the float a couple of times.

Better to have some fuel in the tank even when it reads empty.

No need to drain the tank.

Cliff



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Cliff

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Like the larger type for my eyes. 

 

 
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JoeyJoeJoe


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Well, I was never able to figure out the issue so I tried again over the last couple of days. Rather than pull the sending unit I drained the tank while using an ohmmeter on the unit. It went from around 40 ohms to 27 removing 10 litres so it is operating correctly. I checked continuity between the guage and the sending unit, 12v at the guage, all good. I have an extra guage cluster so I took the fuel guage out and swapped them, no change. At this point I'm ready to give up and fill it up every time I go for a cruise but I just couldn't live with that. I was fooling around with the unit I had out and checking resistance between the 2 spade connectors on the back of the guage and was getting infinite resistance. All of a sudden my probe slipped and hit the stud that the spade was bolted to and I got a reading. I removed both nuts and cleaned everything up and eureka, resistance. Reinstalled and everything works. Fyi, both guages had the exact same issue and to be honest the corrosion was barely visible, so if anyone else has this trouble I would try this first or second. 



-- Edited by JoeyJoeJoe on Monday 22nd of July 2024 05:55:56 PM

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DonSSDD


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Congratulations, we are all smarter than we were before.

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63 Parisienne sport coupe (The Big GTO), black, maroon interior, 409 4 speed; former owner of a 59 El Camino, 63 Corvette SWC, 62 Chev Bel Air SC.
1963- Pontiac top selling car in Canada

Mahone Bay, NS Still not old enough to need an automatic
JoeyJoeJoe


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Thanks Don, I hope one day to be as helpful as so many of you have been to me. 



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DonSSDD


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You should take a drive over here sometime so you can meet a bunch of smart old timers? . There are a few on the way and wed all like to inspect your  car. 



-- Edited by DonSSDD on Monday 22nd of July 2024 06:56:30 PM

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63 Parisienne sport coupe (The Big GTO), black, maroon interior, 409 4 speed; former owner of a 59 El Camino, 63 Corvette SWC, 62 Chev Bel Air SC.
1963- Pontiac top selling car in Canada

Mahone Bay, NS Still not old enough to need an automatic
4SPEED427


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JoeyJoeJoe wrote:

Thanks Don, I hope one day to be as helpful as so many of you have been to me. 

 Way to stick to it until you found it! 

And as Don stated, sooner or later someone will be helped by your efforts.



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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles 

1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars (now converted to a "factory" 4 speed)
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JoeyJoeJoe


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That would be awesome Don. Unfortunately Hagerty only allows me 5000km a year so i'd run out of insurance before I got there. 



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