The_German

My 56 fuel gauge does not seem to function properly. When I put 12V plus on the left contact seen from above from the face side and I am grounding the right contact, the fuel meter should go to full.
The hand only moves a tiny little bid, however. I tried it directly on the battery, 11,8 volts to the left side and the right side on minus.

I measured the resistance and came up with 90 ohms. When I put 12 volts on the left contact and put the voltmeter on the right one, connected to ground, I only get a few volts.

Can you help me explaining, what I could to to make it function? Do you happen to have a 56 fuel meter for me or an entire speedometer cluster with fuel meter in there?

thanks
brgds
The_German

oldcutlass

I believe the case of the gauge is supposed to be grounded also. If no wire is connected from the sender then the needle should go past full. If the terminal for sender is connected to ground then it will go to E. Are you sure your gauge and sender are for a 90ohm system?

The_German

Eric, I will see, what I can find out. First of all, I will clean the mechanics, some alcohol, a little oil etc.
Then I will test it again.
At the same time, I will see, if I can find a another fuel gauge at ebay or so, then I have enough to experiment and find the problem....
I have no clue, if this is supposed to be a 90 ohm system, all I know is that the gauge is an original gauge for a 56 and I can read my ohm- meter saying it it 90 ohms.
Honestly, I do not know what is right and wrong here....

oldcutlass

If its the stock gauge I believe the sender should be 0-30 ohms. Some of the others may verify.

Ozzie

On my 1955 Olds, the original tank sender varies from 1.2 ohms (empty) to 30.5 ohms (full) when checked out of the tank.

ignachuck

0 to 30 is correct for your car.

Frank

twintracks

I'd bet that in 99.9% of all cases, it's the sender or a bad tank ground that's the culprit, and not the gauge. I've had the tank out of four different cars in the last year. The sender was always at fault. I know it's a PIA, but you're going to have to drop the tank, and pull out the sender. The good news is that Fusick has the sender for your car. I put one in my '55 last year.

Rocketowner

I agree with Twintracks,I have seen several tank senders go bad ,and don't recall ever replacing the dash gauge. At Fusicks the tank sending unit is About $100. Larry

The_German

Thanks for your kind help.
Here is the solution to the problem:
A watchmaker cleaned the fuel gauge and put some tiny amounts of oil on it.
I installed it again and it functions!!!!!

oldcutlass

Is there still an issue with it being a 90ohm sender?

The_German

The 90 Ohms are the electrical resistance of the in dash gauge. The sending unit is a 30 ohms...

oldcutlass

Ok, misunderstood, glad you got it fixed.

Rocketowner

Great news,there's a first for everything. Thanks for reporting back. We like pictures , when you get time. There's a post here named "54-56 Owners Unite" has most all of the '54-'56 owners and picture of their car,you might like to look at. Larry