Quote:
Originally Posted by rotorwrench
I'm not sure I agree with the idea that the stock 6-volt King Seeley coolant temperature and fuel quantity systems will work correctly if a change is made to 12-volts. These units are current based and not resistance based as more modern stuff is. A little heating coil in senders bends the bi-metallic strip to trip the breaker in rapid movement and control the current depending on the position of the diaphragm that applies pressure to change the current output for an indicator reading.
If you are well versed with Ohms law, then you know when you change any one of the variables in basic electricity, it directly affects the other variables. Change the carrier voltage and you change the current draw. Higher voltage tends to decrease the current needed to function a load. This is why a 12-volt system can used smaller wire gauge. This is bound to change the current draw of the little heating coil on the bi-metallic strip. I would question the accuracy of the output of the sending unit.
Ford experimented with this stuff during the first few years of the change over. I believe 1956 was an all 12-volt year for instrumentation but they changed again in 1957 and started using a chopper type voltage regulator on the instrumentation that works in much the same way as a car's voltage regulator does. I've used the solid state constant voltage regulators on King Seeley systems and they work very well. They are small enough that one can be installed on each indicator power supply on the back of the gauge. I'm not real familiar with the 1955 T-birds but all the earlier KS units of the 30s thru most of the 6-volt era, require a voltage reduction for the KS systems to work as intended.
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I ordered a voltage reducer for my gauges. The T Bird set up might be different than my F100. Thanks