Need an opinion (Gauges)

SY2932

Administrator
Fuel pressure is number one followed by transmission temperature IMO. Our transmissions can give us SO much grief, it makes sense to know if it is "cooking itself to death" just inches away.
 

VermontTy

Support Our Troops
SY2932 said:
Fuel pressure is number one followed by transmission temperature IMO. Our transmissions can give us SO much grief, it makes sense to know if it is "cooking itself to death" just inches away.

Too many gauges....so little room!
 

turbodog

Donating Member
VermontTy said:
Too many gauges....so little room!

This is why I have a '4-input' setup for pressure, and a '4-input' setup for temp. I can crank thru them and check general health, then leave them set on the critical 2 (yup, trans temp and fuel pressure, I agree) for full-time monitoring.
 

SY2932

Administrator
VermontTy said:
SY2932 said:
Fuel pressure is number one followed by transmission temperature IMO. Our transmissions can give us SO much grief, it makes sense to know if it is "cooking itself to death" just inches away.

Too many gauges....so little room!

I have five in my pillar currently:

IMG_0605.sized.jpg
 

92Ty#1524

New member
Unless you already have a fuel pressure guage under the hood, I'd go with that. It's an essential tuning tool especially if you have chip or fuel system mods.
 

TrboSy2051

New member
turbodog said:
VermontTy said:
Too many gauges....so little room!

This is why I have a '4-input' setup for pressure, and a '4-input' setup for temp. I can crank thru them and check general health, then leave them set on the critical 2 (yup, trans temp and fuel pressure, I agree) for full-time monitoring.

Ditto, i have the 3 gauge pillar......... 1 mech. boost, 1 elec. pressure & 1 elec. temp........... i can read fuel/oil pressure w/ a switch and 4 temps w/ the other.................. 8 readings and 3 gauges.......... could set up more senders/switches if wanted

HTH
Buddy
 

turbodog

Donating Member
So, having rigged the guages for multiple inputs, the next question is: How do I know which sender I'm monitoring at a glance?

In reality, after a few hours behind the wheel, you can judge by looking at the position of the switch... but the bling factor in that is zero. So......

You make an indicator panel. This shot is with panel in 'daytime' mode (lheadlights off). The LED is bright enough to read in direct sunlight. That's why it's overexposed here:
gage1.JPG



But, that would be annoyingly bright at nite, so you build a dimmer circuit:
gage2.JPG


Which follows the instrument lamp dimmer control:
gage3.JPG


Which scores higher on the bling scale, but probably works about as well as looking at the switch position
icon_lol.gif
 
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VermontTy

Support Our Troops
SY2932,

I saw that picture somewhere before that was much larger, and saved it for future reference. That's about exactly what I'd like to end up with. I think it looks great. Those dual gauges aren't cheap!

I'd also like to know where you got that gauge, turbodog.
 

turbodog

Donating Member
ty1724 said:
who makes that gauge its sick!!
VermontTy said:
I'd also like to know where you got that gauge, turbodog.

Mine are standard 2-5/8 Autometer Sport-Comp. electrics. Got the guages from Summit, the extra senders from Mike Hood. The sender indicator panels and dimmer circuits are home-made. Got most of the parts from Allied Electronics (alliedelect.com).
 

turbodog

Donating Member
Wondered if anyone would notice. I do have a sender on the rear air susp, as I have an override I can use to bring the rear up to stock height (or higher) for pre-meditated launches. The guage allows me to to so repeatably (without getting out and checking with a tire guage in the fenderwell, where I have a shraeder valve plumbed in).

As for 'Trans', well, the indicator bars come in mutilples of 2's so I had to put something on the label. No sender hooked up on position #4. In hindsight I should have put 'flux capacitor' on the label. I may get around to printing a different label. It's just ink-jet printer on transparent mailing labels.
 

MikeRenz

not stock
turbodog said:
Wondered if anyone would notice. I do have a sender on the rear air susp, as I have an override I can use to bring the rear up to stock height (or higher) for pre-meditated launches. The guage allows me to to so repeatably (without getting out and checking with a tire guage in the fenderwell, where I have a shraeder valve plumbed in).

As for 'Trans', well, the indicator bars come in mutilples of 2's so I had to put something on the label. No sender hooked up on position #4. In hindsight I should have put 'flux capacitor' on the label. I may get around to printing a different label. It's just ink-jet printer on transparent mailing labels.

I think a "PEER" pressure gauge would be funnier. :)
 

ghettosled

SYTY SUPERSTORE
turbodog, that gauge looks really nice. Would work really well for anything with a range of 0-100psi. The SPA gauges are also top of the line, then there's westach which is more aircraft style with analog readouts.
 

turbodog

Donating Member
ghettosled said:
turbodog, that gauge looks really nice. Would work really well for anything with a range of 0-100psi.

Thanks. It was an experiment, as much as anything. The 90 degree electric Sport Comp guages are cheap enough that if I ruined one, it's no big deal. The tricky part is drilling thru the edge of the bezel to get the wires to the guage face. I may sacrifice one of these to see if I can remove the bezel from one and then get it back on and looking decent. That would make the whole thing easier and the results 'cleaner'.

I am using the 250F temp guage for IC temp, as well as water, oil and trans. I found a thermistor that closely matches the resistance of the Autometer sender, but at half the temp. So, the IC readout is 2X the actual temp (making it a 50 - 125 DF range). Anyway, it was a good summer project, when the garage was too hot to do anything serious.
 

wazdat

Make my day
Turbodog,

I've been researching gauge options for my 92 Ty and your setup is perfect. Would you be interested in helping me build a set? I'm a retired Navy Electronics Technician so I think I'm up to the task. Just need a little help with the part #'s and some "how to" pointers so I don't have to reinvent the wheel. :D

Thanks,

Doug
 

turbodog

Donating Member
Sure. I'll dig up my schematic and parts list. You'll need to find some ultra-fine guage wire for the feed thru from the dimmer to the LED bars. I think mine came from a multi-conductor phone or data comm cable. The other thing you should know up front is that my method of drilling thru the edge of the bezel left some metal flakes inside the glass. I was able to vacuum almost all out with a keyboard vac hooked to shrink tubing stuck in thru the illumination bulb hole. However, the results are not perfect.. So, if you want show-quality results, the bezel has to come off at some point. It is swaged on by autometer, and I'm not sure how to get it off and back on and looking right.
 
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