I'm thinking the temp sender on my 223 has gone out, the gauge used to work fine and stopped one morning. Wire tests with a miltimeter say there is a good circuit, my best guess is the sender.

So I looked and called around...... and looked some more, then I called some more, and did it all over again.

They don't exist.
NAPA/Autozone/oreily-kragen, none of them show they even exist. Online sources show the same thing.
After prodding my local carquest for 3 days they found one...for $92. No return.

Does anyone have a good source to find this part for a reasonable price?

 

I had a similar issue. Was not sure of the guage or the sender. While I'm in the process of working on the truck, I put a cheap 3 set ( water, volt Oil) mechanical set on. they come with the senders and work prety good.

$ 39.. Pep boys I did at first get aender from NAPA. He said they are prety much interchangeable as lon as thread are the same.

 

That's the issue, finding one with the same thread type.

I'm thinking of going to the junk yard and finding an old aftermarket mechanical gauge and using that. Even a brand new Stewart Warner mech gauge is only $70-80.

Man this is a load of crud...I'm actually quite flustered about this.
But I guess this is one of those "what did you expect?" type of situations. It's a 55 year old motor that in all reality isn't very popular...

 

The mechanical set i bought has different adaptors for thw water hook up. It comes in a kit. Just use what adaptor fits. Really preety simple and again cheap

 

Thank you very much Jim.

 

Replacement 1956 temperature gauge senders are available from Mac's, Midfifty, and many other restoration parts suppliers. They cost about $55.

The gauges and senders used in 56 are unique to that model year and are not compatible with other years. Therefore, they are a bit more expensive than other years and not usually found at the chain stores due to low volume demand. In 56 Ford went to 12 volt electrical systems. They maintained the pulse type senders used in previous years and redesigned the gauges and senders to operate on 12 volts. In 57 Ford went back to 6 volt instruments powered through a constant voltage regulator (CVR) and began using variable resistance senders which are much less expensive.

You can test your panel gauge by applying 3 volts across it using two flashlight batteries in series. Earlier years with 6 volt systems use one flashlight battery for this test. The gauge should go to mid scale. This test is found in the 56 Shop Manual. Easy to do when the gauge is out of the dash, but not so easy working under the dash.

 

Wow, that info is invaluable!!! Awesome to know!

Midfifty lists a few different senders on page 45 of the online catalog, they have different ohm ratings, which one is the stock ford unit, the top or the one that says "ford"? https://midfifty.com/catalog_view.php
Thank you very much.

 

None of those, they're all resistance type senders for aftermarket or later gauges. For your stock gauge you need an OE pulse type sender.

Midfifty made a small error. On p.45 it says "Original units available see page 45." The original unit is found on page 79, part #2940.

Craig

 

Thank you VERY much for that.

 

For he record, this issue is abandoned. The cheapest sender is $58, and that's asking too much.
I found a mechanical gauge that I got for free from a junk car. I'll be installing it today when I figure out how to hang it.