“hippie gas” LOL
LOL…not sure many hippies would support using food as a gasoline additive. That sounds more like a corporate-political smoke & mirror con job.
I’ve got the WCCC “Fuel Sending Unit - Low Fuel Sensor - XR7 - STAINLESS - Repro Item #: 18901”. They are currently out of stock. The level calibration is way of as reported above, I’m disappointed that WCCC didn’t indicate that would be an issue. They are usually good about that. It has three posts (two electrical connections and one locator). I replaced a prior after market sender (w/o the low fuel sensor) that had only the one connection. It appeared that the connection on the aftermarket sender was larger or forcing the three connector wiring harness plug on the the single post may have damaged the harness plug. That prior aftermarket sensor was reporting fuel level fairly well but I wanted the low level. I have issues getting a good connection, the connector doesn’t fit tightly on the posts, the low level sensor is not working reliably and I have run out of gas once. I’ve ordered the MeterMatch-VR and will try it out next time I feel like pulling the dash pad and instrument panel and rewiring.
I believe 1969XR7Vert was doing some sort of restoration part for these??? Maybe he will chime in.
The reason we did not report that these units had issues is we did not know… The supplier claimed they worked perfectly in the T-Birds for 2 years and had been thoroughly tested. We were thrilled as all they had to do was put a different tube on it and it was correct for Mustang / Cougar. We were grossly misinformed, they had multiple problems and we will not relist them until they have been in our cars (plural) for 60 days with zero issues. So far that has not been the case.
Here 'ya go: https://cccforum.discoursehosting.net/t/new-version-1-2-electronic-low-fuel-indicator-kits/4290/2 Selling V1.4 now and they are $125 shipped. Please contact me with any questions and/or to place an order.
Regards,
Robert
This would be a great topic for a tech article. I pull the sender out and then plug it in with a ground wire run to the tank. I put the arm fully down and verify the gauge shows empty. Then I put it all the way up and verify that the gauge shows full. There are limit tabs built into the sender. by slightly bending the tab and the arm I am able to get it read right at both ends of the scale. Where it is in the middle isn’t a huge concern at least to me. In almost every case I am able to replace the thermistor, sand blast the winding’s, clean it all up and smooth it all out with fine emery cloth and replace the float and filter and it all seems to work for the next five years.
I should add that Bob’s ELFI works even better than replacing the thermistor.
I bought one for my yellow 68 XR-7 and I can’t get it to register full either. Don, will there be a “fix” for those of us that bought these before the problem was discovered?
If no fix then a refund… We are hoping for a fix.
I’m hoping for a fix as well. I think I must have bought one of the last ones before you found out they were having problems.
Don,
Sorry my criticism came across too strongly. You guys are the only supplier I know of that screens and rates products including offering those that are the only thing available but have issues that you caution about. It is appreciated. Many of the sending units have issues from a linear versus non-linear outputs and it’s about impossible to tell how they will work. I’m expecting to get the MeterMatch-VR shortly and that should (if as advertised) let me calibrate the gauge readout to accurately report the fuel lever. I’'ll let everybody know how it works out.
So, at the end of the day, there really is no good fix on this right now it seems. I suppose I can just use guess work. Fortunately, the trip odometer in car works and I reset it last time I topped the tank off. I’ll keep a close eye on fuel mileage, knowing the tank is 20 gallons, and go from there. I just have to remind the wife if she fills up she’ll need to reset the trip odometer so we can see how far we’ve gone since the last fuel. Or, go REALLY old school keep a gas in car at all times.
Hippie gas… that’s funny. Lucky for me, I can get non-Hippie gas where I am at, which is what I will burn exclusively in the car. But I expect any damage has already been done.
OCAF (Old cars are fun)
Fill up every 150 miles. 
Thanks Bill. The “even better” part is no flashing at the LF threshold. I understand many LF lamps were removed by dealers in order to appease owners that were annoyed by the incessant flashing as the LF threshold was reached.
But what about the charm of the flashing light? Or the hum of turn signal motors? Or the hissing of vacuum headlights? You just can’t replace nostalgia like that. :0)
I interviewed a service writer that worked at a Ford dealership when the Thunderbird came out with with this feature. He said that customers thought the cars got horrible gas mileage because of the lights. Apparently many thought that low meant empty or very close to it. The perception was that they had to fill up far more often. They would bring the car in thinking there was something wrong with it cause it was using so much gas… He also told me that the “Belts” light was a big issue as some though the car had a faulty fan belt or something. He had some great stories.
Thanks for that info on the link, Robert. I will pull the sender this winter and see where I stand on that. If it looks like I need this, I’ll be in touch.
I had also purchased one of these new 2 - wire sending units and my experience was the same as others, not very accurate.
Full tank of gas gives me a 3/4 indication and within 100 miles it’s reading “E”. I know I get lousy gas mileage but not that bad!
In an attempt to remedy this issue I purchased and installed a Techno Versions “MeterMatch” which will rescale the sending unit to drive the meter.
In theory this could work, but the bottom line is if the sending unit outputs the same resistance with 5 gallons of gas as it does with no gas (which is what I’m seeing with mine (74.6 ohms)) then no scaling device will help at the low end. The one positive about the new sending unit is that the low gas indicator does work and I use that to tell me it’s time to fill up. I just get nervous staring at the Gas gauge reading “E” even though I know it’s not correct.
But now I have the Meter Match set to indicate a full tank @ 18 ohms and 1/4 of a tank at 75 ohms and when the Gas gauge gets to 1/4 of a tank, I’ll either fill up or wait for the fuel warning light, assuming you can trust that that hasn’t failed since your last fill-up!
Follow up…
I filled the tank up with gas (even squeezed in more after the pump auto shut off) and read the sender output, it read 18.5 Ohms. I believe the sending unit should have an output range of 10 (full tank) to 75 ohms (empty tank). My next step is to remove the sending unit and verify that is indeed the case (10 - 75 ohm range) and if so the fix may be to just bend the float connecting rod down a bit to have it indicate 10 when full and hopefully 75 when empty. Right now it looks like the rod is situated such that the float is “under water” when the tank is full (because it’s hitting the mechanical top limit) and is floating in air when the tank is empty (because it’s hitting the mechanical low limit). At least that’s what I’m hoping is the case.
I’ll have to wait until I burn through at least most of my gas, and with winter approaching that may not be until spring.
Installed TechnoVersion’s MeterMatch-VR last week and it has done a lot to improve the fuel level indication within the range of the sending unit. I’m planning on a more detailed post of the broader issues and what this product was able to address. I’ve now gotten brave and ordered their TachMatch TM-02-I-Drive to calibrate my tach that now reads more than 15% too high. I’m getting way too much practice at pulling the dash and instrument cluster.