Sending unit part 2

[Ski 61701]

I ran into the same problem when I had my instrument cluster gauges recalibrated on my 64 Dodge. The aftermarket sender I bought was 125.00 was / is calibrated for aftermarket Stewart Warner style gauges, this is according to the guy who did my stuff. He was able to rebuild my oem sender and upgrade the tube to 3/8".
So i put it together and sure enough gas gauge was off. I did calculation based that tank is 18 gal. So I put 9gal of gas in sure enough gauge was only reading around 1/4 tank.
Fast forward I had another complete cluster and I compared the position of the needle on both. Sure enough the recalibrated gauge the needle was too far to the left. Out comes the cluster, back to gauge guy, and sure enough he was able to reset the needle so when power was off the needle was on "E" not to the left of it.
It works fine now.
1. Sounds like you should be 1/2 full I'd ohm the sender as it's in the car record the number. In case your gauge guy wants the number. My guy was indifferent to my meter reading.
2. Make sure you have the ground strap on metal fuel line that connects sender to metal line on frame.
3. Look at resting position of needle see if its at E not past it. Maybe that's what going on in your case. Needle is off
If you have an fsm for your car take the cluster out remove the back and you should see a small slot on back of gas gauge and a lever inside that you can adjust the position of the needle if its in fact off . Whole lot easier than dropping tank. Hope this helps

 

[Kern Dog]

Sounds like you "just" need to bend the float arm? (Like a toilet!) Not what anyone wants to do, I know..but it worked for me. My aftermarket unit only read 1/2 on the gauge, when the gas was visible at the level of the filler neck.

Check out this original TSB from November 1970. It shows how to bend the fuel sender to get the filter sock against the floor.