Technical Stewart Warner gauges

Today I heard that new Stewart Warner gauges speedos in particular were having some issues. At 500 plus dollars for a gauge set you would hope to have a quality set. Anyone had any issues with the classic winged gauges? I want to buy a set for my 32 style dash right away. And what's the difference between all electric and mechanical and electric?

 

All electric means just that all the gages have electronic sending units. The mechanical
Gages have a mechanically driven speedometer with a cable and the oil And temperature gages are mechanically sending units. I personally have a wings set of mechanical gages in my hot rod and that have worked great for 10 years.

 

Thanks for sharing. In the kit is everything I need to connect the gauges? Or do you have to buy sending units and hardware and fittings and adapters for the speedo and what not?

 

I have electronic speedo that just broke after 22,000 miles.
I haven't checked why it broke yet.

 

I'm running a full set of winged Stewart Warner gauges in my V8 A been on the road for about three years with no problems. Perfect look for a traditional style car.

 

Same Stewart Warner winged set?

 

How many miles on the speedo? Never had an issue with the needle not moving?

 

Only has a couple thousand miles on it and works great, it does have a new speedometer cable since I had one made for it to an early V8 transmission. Always smooth never had any hesitation or needle jumping.

 

Thanks for sharing. I heard that the speedos were having some failures and summit Co was shipping out new speedos and not asking for returns of the failed part since the new gauges cannot be opened and worked on like the older style Stewart Warner gauges

 

So hit the swap meets and put together a set of old gauges. Some SW’s from the 70’s will have a better look than the new ones, more quality, and cost less than half. Don’t tell us you don’t like swap meets.

 

Just installed this set in a 37. Mechanical speedo. Picked up at a swap meet for $200.
Warren

 

well, i looked high and low and didn't see 'em..

 

my electric set of Wings have been fine...tho the odometer clicks .

 

For $500 you can buy quality built SW gauges at swap meets or online...probably some in the Marketplace section here on the HAMB as mentioned in another post and quite possibly built before 1965. A bit of scrounging and I'll bet you can get a set together for less than $500

 

I bought a Stewart Warner electric gauge set & the sending units had to be purchased separately. And the fuel gauge didn't work out of the box & Summit replaced it...

 

The best are the old classic gauges. I can see from a mile away that this is a modern fake. Even the best made car can be ruined by installing gauges that pretend to be classic

 

I've got 30000 miles on my set Of wings. I've got
Some Stuart Warner green line gages in my 41 for a couple of years now, with no problems.

 

All in all it truly seems hit and miss. I appreciate everyone sharing information not so much the opinions of what is right or wrong but to each their own. Many hot rods have the new winged gauges from Stewart Warner and they sure do look nice.

 

I really liked the Wings gauges, they had the right look but I had some frustrating small problems so gave up and went Auto Meter. Best deal I've done the last few years is gong to GPS speedometers.

 

Sure sounds cool gps speedo. Would you be willing to share the problems you were having with Stewart Warner? Sounds like it was enough to get you to switch brands.

 

What he said.^^^^

 

This! I have a full set of SW wings in my flathead roadster. I am half deaf and I was trying to track down down a loud clicking noise that went away every time I pulled over to investigate.

You ever seen a deaf guy try to track down which smoke detector is beeping in the house? Well that was me in my car till I noticed it was the odometer clicking over every tenth of a mile. Like a time bomb in a Batman show. Fortunately the blower and the QC drown it out at speed.

 

Even though that is a good and funny story, it's another person with the same problem from the same part. Speedometer, speedometer, and speedometer. I wonder what it is about these gauges in particular that the speedo's just ain't up to par.

 

That's why I can't find any SW gauges at swap meets, Moriarity has them all.

 

A little late to the party but, I had a set of wings in my '36 Ford, the electric speedo sender wouldn't work below say 40 degrees and you had to smack the tachometer with your knuckle to get it to read the proper RPM. Other than that they were swell...expensive but swell! Mitch

 

I’m always looking for converts & I have to say that, with a little patience, the old Wings gauges are the way to go. They do have some basic differences from the new versions. Aside from different graphics, the glass curve is less bulbous on the old ones (1948-54) & the needle is metal, rather than plastic. It’s rare to find a mechanical oil pressure, vacuum, speedo or tach that doesn’t work. Here are a few that on which I did a cosmetic restoration last week. Subtle elegance. These might be an alternative. At least you can use old age as an excuse when they don’t work.

 

The original SW electric wings gauges have specific senders that will work only with a particular gauge. I do not no of any interchanges between the wings and the block insignia ones or use of different brand senders. Possibly there is.
There lies the difficulty with the old salvaged wings gauges, any used gauges had their senders stay with the motor and were probably thrown out. So you're left with NOS ones that are getting hard to find.
I wonder if it's possible to take a SW block gauge and sender and swapping it into a wings gauge would work as long as the units of measure are the same.

 

The senders are still available. I just bought an N.O.S. 362-F 6V temp sender on Ebay today for $15, which matches the model 358-C Wings temp gauge. Here is a chart from my 1957 Stewart-Warner catalog, which matches the two different types of temp & oil pressure gauges to the two different types of senders. There are two different types of gauges...Magnetic & Thermal. Each takes a different model sender. The Large Logo gauges (1955-57) are essentially the same as the Wings gauges, the only difference being the Logo & the flat glass for the 1957 Large Logos.