Lincoln Cosmo. Getting ready to wire 12v. The last car I updated the wiring, I pulled the crusty sending unit from the factory tank and opted for a universal, and it never worked properly. I'm not real swift with electronics. What is the component you can use to reduce the voltage so I can use the 6v unit? Also, having the great or retired, can some shops put an internal voltage regulator in the generator? Is that a waste of time? Thanks guys.
As I recall, the tank unit is not voltage sensitive, the dash unit is. The tank units have a rheostat (variable resistance) that has a range compatible with the particular dash unit. For instance, a tank unit may go from zero ohms to forty ohms resistance as the float rises/falls. Another system (different vehicle or year model) may have a range from thirty to ninety ohms. So, the tank unit you have, if functioning correctly on 6 volts, should still be useable with your original dash unit as long as you use a voltage dropping resistor ("runtz" style) to reduce the 12v to 6v at the dash unit.
Just get a 6V reproduction sending unit for your car and "dumb down" the voltage to the gauge so that it alone operates on 6V. Ive had all kinds of trouble trying to make a sending unit operate with a different gauge. You can gets lots of electronic theory. You don't need any electronic theory if the sender was designed to work with your gauge. Don't mix match parts and hope it works. I believe in the KISS system I have a 6V SW large logo gas gauge operating perfectly in my 12V Ford. Just the gas gauge gets fed with 6V. The rest are just fed with the normal 12 Vs Pretty simple. It is a hell of a lot easier than it was 50 years ago.
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