I'm trying to get some Stewart Warner gauges for my '54 but I don't know if I should get the mechanical gauges or the electrical ones, is there a reason for one over the other and which would be better? I need to get a water temperature, oil pressure, and voltmeter gauges to keep track of the 351W.
I've got electric. I had the line on a mechanical oil pressure gauge break on my truck and let all the oil out. Good for an engine rebuild.
On my Y block, I tapped the intake manifold right by the thermostat housing for a temp gauge. I used mechanical oil and temp gauges, but if I did it again, I would go electric for the reason spoken about above. I did not use a volt or amp meter. The electrical system is reliable, watching it wont really help if it decides to fail.
Electric X2. Speedway Motors lists old school SW "Deluxe" black/white electric guages (not the foo-foo "Wings" series guages) in matching gauge/sender sets (Catalog #318, 2011 Street Rod Master Catalog, page 180). Much safer and neater than the old mechanical style while keeping the old-timey appearance. Don't use the original amp meter...or any amp meter, for that matter...if you're using an alternator. Amp meters do not have sufficient amp capacity to deal with alternator output and can overheat and cause a fire. Use a voltmeter instead. A voltmeter will tell you the charge in the battery when the engine is not running, and will tell you the voltage input to the battery while the engine is running. Low battery charge points to a failing battery or insufficient input from the charging system; low voltage input points to a failing charging system component, usually the alternator. Both are pretty important to getting your *** home...
I've got vintage mechanical units (short of my volt gauge of course), and as mentioned, the oil pressure gauge is silly. The pressure line cracks and it leaves oil everywhere. I plan on switching to electrical sometime next year. No complaints with the water temp gauge, I'll probably leave that mechanical, considering it tells me the temp ALL the time, opposed to just when the key is on.
The problem with electrical gauges is sending issues and grounding issues. I usually use mechanical gauges and have never had a problem If you use the 5 cent plastic line they come with then you are asking for an oil leak. Use 1/8 copper line and you will not have any problems. The only down side to mechanical gauges is running the lines, wires are easier to hide etc. Last week the wife was driving the bucket and lost all the oil pressure. After a bunch of h***le, towing the car home it was the sending unit. I didn't buy this car and it is the only electric gauges I have but it won't be for long. I like to run a voltage gauge. It will tell you all you need to know and it is useful for troubleshooting if things aren't working correctly.
Electric.... easy to hook up by following instructions. Stewart Warner has good gauges but they are ***embled in Mexico..... I have used Auto Meter in several cars and they just don't seem to hold up. I have my second set in my '53 and now my gas guage is messed up again.... Time to toss 'em and get a set of Stewart Warners this time. The guy that bought my yellow '37 had to replace the auto meter's that were in there when I put it together a few years back.
Thanks for all your help guys. After reading the responses, I settled my mind and got the Stewart Warner electrical gauges with sending units from Speedway.
I use mechanical oil and water, volt gauge is electrical on all my cars. I have never had any problems with them. I have had a problem with electric water temp gauge quiting on a car I bought that p/o had installed. Change it out to mechanical. I use copper 1/8 line on oil gauge not the cheap-o plastic line.
I do agree that using the copper line sounds like a better idea than some crazy plastic line that can get to hot and crack or something could fly into it and cut the line or just knick it a bit. I did go with all electrical sending units so we will see how this work out.
Hey 54hotrod, Please dont make the same mistake the p/o made on my 50 Chevy. He wrapped all the electric send units with teflon tape so they won't leak. At the same time he made sure they didn't have a good ground. Oil pressure at engine was 45 pounds on gauge it was 25. car ran at 180 gauge read at 100. Just my two cents of info. Reto Jim whats your opinion on this subject?
Why would any one run something other than electrical tape on something electrical? Since I've never dealt with wiring gauges I didn't even put a lot of thought into it at this point about how the gauges are going to be wired. I'm not sure what you mean about using teflon tape so they wouldn't leak. What are you talking about leaking, electricity? I just want them to get to me so that I can start the scheming process. At this point I haven't even decided the exact location. All I know right now is I bought a three pod cluster and three gauges of the same size to go in that cluster with sending units. I'm sure it will just go on the right side of the steering column but thats' where I'm leaving the decision at right now.
54HotRod: I have a schematic from when I wired the guages in my Buick. They are SW electric and the schematic should be the same for yours. If you'd like I can scan it and post it on this thread. Let me know. Risky is right. Although it's unlikely, there's a remote chance that teflon sealing tape will hinder the ground of the guage sender to the block. I'd think that this would cause intermittant readings rather than low readings, however, and would suspect mis-matched or faulty senders, guages or both. In any case, Permatex is probably a better choice of thread sealant.
54hotrod The p/o of my Chevy put teflon tape around the threads of the sending units before he screwed them into the engine block (ie oil sending unit, water temp sending unit). By him doing this it affected how the sender unit was grounded . Examaple; with car running oil pressure gauge would read 25 pounds, when I added a ground wirer to oil pressure sending unit, gauge would then read 45 pounds which was correct. I hope this makes it a little clearer.
Risky: Your explanation does clear things up, but I think that I also misunderstood the teflon tape thing altogether. Thanks for the explanation. Missysdad: I would greatly appreciate the schematic. I'm sure these gauges will not come with complete instructions to guide a novice through all the things that I can mess up in a heart beat. On a positive note, I replaced my rear shocks today which was a first for me and only took about thirty minutes. I was surprised at how easy it was and only took a few minutes to get the new ones put on. The car rides so much better now. I did find out that the drive shaft was smashing into the rear floor and the axle was denting the right side exhaust pipe, so no more of those problems.
These are the craziest stick figures I've ever seen. Seriously, thanks for the schematic I really appreciate your help.
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