How to tell if you have Mechanical or Electrical gauges? Also how to install?

[SuperStang83]

I bought a car last weekend and the stock gauges are either not working or way off. The car came with 3 Autometer guages: Volts, Water Temp, & Oil Pressure. I want to hook up the Oil pressure & Water Temp as soon as possible. The problem is I am not even sure if they are mechanical or electrical gauges. I have searched the Tech section here as well as googled how to install these gauges, but everyone seems to have a little bit of a different opinion. They talk about senders, but the gauges I got are just the gauges with a few wires out the back. Can someone point me in the right direction of what parts I need to get these gauges working and also how to install them? I appreciate any help that you can give me. Thank you

Jacob

 

[Fett]

If you look at the back of the oil pressure gauge it is either going to have wires or basically a hole for the oil tube to go to. The temp gauge is either going to have wires or a long metal, bendable "rod" with a large copper sensor at the end of it.

 

[SuperStang83]

It's all wires so I am assuming that it is electrical gauges then? Also one of the gauges is missing the light, is there anywhere to pick up the bulb for this specific gauge. It is missing everything for the light, not just the bulb. Am I just better off selling these on eBay and buying new, or should I just try and make these work because I really don't have much of a clue how to run the wires or anything? Thank you again.

Jacob

 

[HISSIN50]

The above is correct. You might get a clue from the sweep of the gauge. Most electrical gauges have a 120* or so sweep, whereas most mechanical gauges have ~a 270* sweep.

As Chris said, the mech temp gauges is easy to spot; 6' of capillary tube makes it so.
The E-oil pressure gauge will have a threaded port on the back of the gauge for the line to be connected.
An Autometer E-gauge will have a post labeled S as I recall.

You can probably get a bulb holder from Autometer themselves, if not from someone's old gauge. I can imagine how I would rig one together but it would not be perfect.

If you're unaware, Autometer has (or used to have anyhow) instructions on how to wire gauges in PDF's on their site.

Good luck.

 

[SuperStang83]

Awesome thanks for the hint Hissin, I'm gonna check that out right now!

Jacob

 

[SuperStang83]

Hissin could you explain one thing to me? It says on the Autometer site that you can get new senders, but the link sends me to a page with fittings. Can I just get a sender at Autozone or similar store.

 

[SuperStang83]

Also does anyone know how many wires I should get to run these gauges. I tried calling Autometer tech line to see what all I needed, but they were closed till Monday. I would like to try and get these in today if at all possible. Can you get just the senders at a regular parts store?

 

[HISSIN50]

The sending units are not stocked at a parts store (not around here anyhow). Summit is one source for them and they can look a bit like fittings. I'd run through Autometer's site real quick and find stuff but their site bogs my dial-up really bad.

Wiring for the volt gauge: one ground and one wire that is hot with the key on.

For the OP gauge: Same as above but with one more wire for the sending unit.

For the water temp gauge, same as OP (oil pressure).

For all gauges you will need to run a wire for the lighting. You can grab dimmed lighting from any number of places, but you might find that tapping into fuse 13 is easiest. Parts stores sell fuse taps that allow you to add a wire to a fuse.

The lighting ground can share the grounds for the gauges.

If all your gauges are located in one spot (like in one gauge pod), I'd run a key-on power source to the first gauge, a ground and a wire from fuse 13. Run the wires to the first gauge and then daisy chain wires to the other gauges (since they all need all 3 of those things). Then add your two sending unit wires, and you're done.

Here's a thread from Srothfuss with background info on a gauge install and how he did his. EDIT: I get red X's where pics should be but I dont know if that's because there were too many pics (I get that with dial-up) or because Steve took them down.

Good luck.

 

[SuperStang83]

Thank you so much man, I am workin on that now!