What I found when I did mine for two separate vehicles. The first universal sending unit I bought did not allow me to remove the arm at all. I got it to work correctly with some imaginative bending of the rod and figured that was to be the norm. The second unit I bought allowed me to remove the rod from the unit and then rebend it and reinstall it to acquire the correct stroke to match the tank. So when you shop for your next sending unit, find one that shows the float/rod assembly detached. The one I got was actually prebent and put together with a nice clean 90deg bend but it was easily disassembled with a gentle pry of the rod. Once I got everything measured out, I just rebent another 90, snapped it back together and all was good
So, I started by measuring the depth of my tank. Let's say it was 6" deep. Draw a side view of that 6" on something flat... the top line for the top of the tank and so-on. Then lay your sensor on its side to where the top of the sensor is in line with the top line you have drawn. You can then hold your float rod in place against the sensor arm (the part that stays attached to the sensor and swings up and down with the float rod) and swing it up and down to decide how long or short the rod has to be.
There may be a situation where the rod length works well at the top of the stroke but then it doesn't go down the full 6". This can be correct by some bending of the rod itself while also adjusting the length. I used a piece of scrap brass rod (it's soft and easy to bend) for all my preliminary bends to sort out what angles and length finally worked well.
You want the bottom of the stroke of the slider to match the lower 6" mark and the top of the stroke to match the upper 6" mark. Keep in mind that the float itself will distort your measurement a bit but with a little patience it'll get pretty close.
Also refrain from attaching the rod to the sensor arm until you are fairly certain you have it all bent correctly. I spect it won't tolerated any stress during any of this process.
Good luck
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