Guages

[Studebucket]

What d you guys deem necessary. I figure Oil, Water, Amp and Speedo.
I,ve considered mounting a gauge on the tank. What do you guys think the bare minimum is?

 

[putz]

Oil water temp Volts or amps and speedo. If you run out of gas it won't hurt anything.

 

[rooster57]

Its lower cost to buy the gauges in a set IE Fuel ,Volt ,temp,speedo with the senders included.

 

[Rick]

I dont think you wanna go with out a gas gauge.Think if you ran out just cruisin out in the country and your smilling away and poof you run out of gas.Well if you dont have a cell phone with you you walk to get gas.Good luck when you get back it or parts of it wont be there.Just my opinion.

 

[Francis Blake]

Rick you sure got that right. A friend of mine that ran a used car lot told me every day when he came in some of the cars had been vandilized. He finally had to close down, but the economy had a lot to do with that. .Francis

 

[Lee_in_KC]

Amps is useless and dangerous to wire, go volts. Oil pressure and water temp for sure, transmission temp if you've got a high stall converter, fuel level is pretty handy, but not absolutely necessary. I have volts, water temp, oil pressure, trans temp, fuel level, boost/vacuum (I have a blower), RPM and speedo.

 

[Ted Brown]

With the T's being sooo light weight, like Corvetts, they will never really heat up a trans to hot to hurt them, but a gauge will tell you that, if you carry a gallon spare, you don't NEED a fuel gauge, and a shut-off switch for4 your oil pressure, that is another you don't need, I remember Dan W in one of His early T's, had none that I remember... I like to know myself whats going on, in my older days.. hehe

 

[Rick]

Now theres a sight Ted boy oh boy lets get a gallon can of gas so it can slosh around and smell like a gas station cause you dont want to put a cheap gas gauge in it.Now that makes sence.

 

[Ted Brown]

Now theres a sight Ted boy oh boy lets get a gallon can of gas so it can slosh around and smell like a gas station cause you dont want to put a cheap gas gauge in it.Now that makes sence.

Rick, I don't know about you, but I always carry a spare gallon, saved many a stranded person over the years, and never spilled it all over the place, just needs to be an expandable container, not completely full. although, one can hook up a hose with an elict. fuel pump to help others out of gas. but it won't help yourself.. My T is my work horse, not just a show car, it has to be workable, for me.

 

[Rick]

Rick, I don't know about you, but I always carry a spare gallon, saved many a stranded person over the years, and never spilled it all over the place, just needs to be an expandable container, not completely full. although, one can hook up a hose with an elict. fuel pump to help others out of gas. but it won't help yourself.. My T is my work horse, not just a show car, it has to be workable, for me.

I get your point Ted but i think i would tell a newbie at building these things that a Fuel gauge would be preferable till they got to know these things but not mandatory to have one.Puts the ball back in his court.It just sounded like you were saying anyone who didnt have a can of gas in there car was foolish.I like alot of guys dont have the room for a can and no desire to have one i guess i have a different approach to these cars show AND go.But as you say Thats just me.No disrespect intended here Ted.Just me talking.

 

[Ted Brown]

Rick, I know just where you are coming from, I am a horse of a different color, as you have already noticed, I make my own trail, and have to live what makes Me Happy or at least content, you know I hate to follow.. as always, no hard feelings ole Friend.

 

[terrymac]

I spent good money for a set of Dolphin guages off e-bay thinking the were of reasonable quality.... 100 miles on the bucket and they're junk. Readings are all eratic and not dependale. But they look nice:sad:
I knew better why ruin an expensive motor on a dollar guage.
T

 

[EX JUNK]

I don't know how Dolphin stays in business with the junk that they sell. I guess people still buy price rather than quality.

Jim

 

[donsrods]

When I built my current 23 I wanted it to be as bare bones as possible. I went with Oil pressure, water temp, and voltmeter. That's it. I judge my speed by going slower than traffic, and I don't need a tach as I let the transmission decide when it needs to shift, or I go by engine sound.

When I built my 27 I went with all 6 gauges including speedo and tach, and I never got around to hooking up the speedo in the whole time I drove it. Never had time to watch the tach as things happened too quick when my foot was deep in the carbs.

I have no fuel gauge on this T and it's no problem. It gets great milage and I stop for gas often. (gas stops become a rolling car show and I get to stretch my legs a little and get circulation back in my backside)

Don

Don

 

[putz]

(gas stops become a rolling car show and I get to stretch my legs a little and get circulation back in my backside)

Don

You must be a little taller like Me 6'1" legs don't like being bent in that angle very long without a stretched body.

 

[akitagandy]

What brand of guage is a good buy,Does any one used Equus

 

[EX JUNK]

I have Stewart Warner in my T (made in Mexico) and Classic Instruments in my '37 Chevy (made in USA).

Jim

 

[Hotrod46]

I'm using VDO Series 1. Water temp, oil pressure and fuel level. I also have a Sun vacuum guage in the dash.

I'm using a warning light for the altermator. I've noticed over the years that the voltmeter is my least monitored guage, but I do find a vacuum guage useful.

I did install a small 2 guage panel temporarily under the dash with a trans temp guage and voltmeter. That's going away shortly since the voltage is always at least 14 and the trans temp never gets over 180 (even when pulling hard in the mountains).

On a side note. Due to a miscalculation on my part, the fuel pick-up doesn't get all the fuel in the tank (leaves at least a gallon). I'm thinking about adding another pick-up in a different location and using it as a reserve, like the older motorcycles had. That should solve any "running out of gas" problems.

Mike

 

[Hotrod46]

Sorry, I got off topic a little.

To answer your question, if I had a gas tank with a reserve like I described (I hate walking for gas!)then I could get by with just oil pressure, water temp and an alternator warning light.

Mike

 

[donsrods]

A voltmeter can be pretty useful actually. If you are running a one wire alternator, like me, they don't like to charge real well at idle. At night when you have your headlights and maybe electric fan running the voltage can drop down into the 10-11 volt range pretty fast.

I recently got stuck in 2 hours of stop and go traffic at night, it took me the two hours to go about 4 miles. I would watch my voltmeter drop and it would tell me when I needed to put it in neutral and bump up the rpms to keep the fan running at top efficiency and also to keep my battery charged.

A volt meter also will tell you when your battery is starting to get old, the alternator won't bring it up into the 13.8 to 14.1 volt range we are used to seeing. As mentioned, ammeters are old hat, and can be dangerous. To many amps traveling into the dashboard area, whereas a voltmeter only reads voltage, not amps.

Don