Technical Stewart Warner gauges , still quality?

Are Stewart Warner gauges still quality like they were in the old days or are they junky fakes now days ?
I havent bought any since maybe the 1980s

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Bought these many years ago..........hecho in Mexico, still in the box, they seem to be OK.

 

I don't know about the new ones, the ones I have, I bought in the sixties.

 

I feel they have lost something. My Willys has a mix of new and old S-W Gauges, and the newer ones (Speedo & temp) have problems, but the 70's ones (Fuel and oil) are great. The 15 year old volt gauge is good though.

 

I have a full set of SW wings in my roadster, they look great with curved glass lenses, crescent pointers, etc. They work, though not great. The odometer clicks off the tenths loud enough for the car next to me to hear, and the temp gauges...well they look good. I have a flathead, so I installed two temp gauges along with a direct fit temp gauge on the engine. At operating temp one gauge reads 195, the other reads 205, the direct fit gauge reads 180. I checked them with my IR handheld, and they are off 15-25 degrees. It still gives me a heads up if it is getting warm so I can deal, but accurate they are not.

The tach works perfect though as does the fuel gauge and the oil pressure gauge.

 

If I want known quality I buy old stuff.

 

Yea , well sometimes ...

 

My HAMB and greater internet research generally showed the new "Made in Mexico" speedo/odometers and tachs are sketchy quality, but the smaller gauges are ok.

Based on that, I bought an NOS still-in-the-box 1970's speedo from Ebay and brand new 2 1/16" gas, oil pressure, coolant temp and volt gauges and senders.

I've driven the car for several months and so far, all are working beautifully.

 

I have been through 2 new stupid Warner speedometers , the ODO kept failing at 1500 miles . It is a huge pain to get the speedo out due to have the booster inside the car right behind the speedo . So it can stay broken , the speedo still read good.

 

Which is why there are no old SW gauges to be found in the Twin Cities and surrounding area.

 

Hope you realize that was an attempt at being funny.

 

My odometer stopped at 200 miles.

 

my odometer stopped trying to turn the fourth digit [1k] they sent a new one and this one has been fine over 4k miles

 

I had a temp sender issue and called there tech line. Tech walked me through how to identify the correct sender. Awesome tech department

 

I have a newer set of the "wings" gauges in my 36 pickup. They're looking and working very well.

 

I recently put a mechanical oil pressure and water temp in mine and so far no issues. I prefer SW over any of the other options.

 

I bought a new Auto Meter speedometer a couple years ago. It failed completely about one month after the warranty expired, with about 7000 miles on it. It seized up, which also broke the speedo gear in my transmission.

 

Wait, they make new gauges ?!?!?!?!

 

I have a full set of SW gauges in my '40 Ford, (tack, speedometer, volt, oil pressure, water temp and gas) black background with white letters. They all work great.

 

I remember when Stewart-Warner re-introduced the Wings gauges, right away I noticed the thick, molded plastic needles instead of the crisp looking sheet metal stampings.
No thanks.

 

We need a fu*k that button

 

I bought a full set of the newer SW gauges for our '46 Tudor build a few years ago and I then read on here just afterwards about their poor quality so I then bought a set of "Old Tyme Black" AutoMeter gauges from Rockauto.
Can't report on them as yet so who knows if they're any better.
https://www.autometer.com/gauges/old-tyme-black.html

 

Must have been a STRONG cable!

Ben

 

Stewart Warner had a service bulletin on this issue, some of their gauges, like the wings, require the 280EC sender even though the gauge face is 100-240F and the sender is rated at 100-230F. The senders with the 100-240F rating make the gauge sweep too far making it read hotter than the actual coolant temp. If those are the senders you have, then yea it is gauges themselves.

 

Î

 

The SW gauges in the 38 and the Stude are all at least 50 years old and doing fine. I did have to break down and buy a new mechanical heat gauge for another car and so far it is fine. My stash of SW gauges is virtually gone