Several years back I spent almost $1000 on after market gauges. Since then, 3 of them have died. The AF ratio gauge died, the fuel pressure gauge never did work right, and the electronic speedo started acting totally weird today. One time it read 80 MPH steady, the next it worked fine. The next time it read 0 MPH. I am really disgusted with the crappy quality in these gauges. They are cheap, cheap, cheap, built to a price by the lowest bidder. Who makes good stuff anyway? The speedo was Auto gage, the AF gauge is Innovate, and the fuel pressure gauge is Auto Meter. I am pretty PO's about this. I would pay more if I thought it would do any good, but I kind of think it is all just junk at this point. The boost/vacuum gauge still works, as does the knock gauge.

The two really cheap gauges,( which are Auto Meter also), the oil pressure and the volt meter work pretty well. Sometimes the voltage meter seems to go to sleep or get lazy, but it comes back. The coolant temp gauge work fine. And for now, the speedo matching tach works. But for how long now is anybody's guess.

The biggest PITA is that to fix them I must take the dash out. ARGH!

I suppose this could be my wiring, but I don;t think so, because they worked for several years, except for the fuel pressure gauge. When I built my '70 Dart, I assembled a Mopar Ralley dash from parts, and made up a harness to mate with the stock Swinger harness. Those gauges worked fine the entire 8 years I drove the car. Old Mopar stuff really is better. Why can't the aftermarket make decent stuff?

Sam

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Greed.

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Casually looking for a Clifford hyperpak intake for cheap.

Yes, I have had the best luck with cheap Summit brand gauges, and burned out a couple of pricey Autometer ones. Maybe try VDO? I can't figure it out either!

Lou

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Home of Slant6-powered fun machines since 1988

I've had good luck with Stewart Warner gauges except the electric oil pressure senders don't like to be mounted to the engine. The vibration appears to make a dead spot at the point where the relief valve opens. I cured it by making a manifold block which I mounted to the inner fender and connected with an AN-4 hose. The block held the gauge sender and a 30 psi Moroso switch for the stock oil light.

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Joshua

Thanks for the feedback, Josh. What other Stewart Warner gauges have you used?

Sam

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I had three Deluxe Series SW gauges in my '66 Dart for years. The electric oil pressure, electric water temp and voltage. I also had a VDO tachometer as it looked a lot like the SW Deluxe Series gauges. Very classic look that fit the car much better than many others.

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Joshua

The speedo started working again. Go figure?

Sam

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You can build a speedo with a S 555 timer and a few other
low cost components, frequency counter etc.

I think the guage side of the application should be very
reliable. I can see how O2 sensors in A/F guage might
have a short life, which is one reason that cars have 2
or more of these.

I prefer fewer guages, but would like to have temporary
guages under hood for a quick hook up for diagnostics.
Generally I prefer a few simple readings once I have
the system dialed. Keep logs of fuel consumption and pay
attention to fuel economy and such to let me know when
I need to run detailed diagnostics.

Aircraft equipment suppliers will have better quality.
You could probably build NASA quality for what you
paid.

Thanks for the tips. It is encouraging there are other choices besides the cheap stuff aftr market auto suppliers provide. But, I can't live my life backwards now can I? Hopefully those tips are a help to others who have not spent the money yet. Where do I get the information about aircraft quality gauges? They don't advertise those in Jegs. ARe there web sites you can recommend.

The folks at Inovate told me that the problem with the AF ratio gauge was likely not the O2 sensor, but the module itself. They said the gauge displays an error code if the sensor is bad, and this one just shows 3 dashes, or what is the center diode of a 7 diode digit. I just have not gotten around to unhooking it and sending it to them. They offered to fix it if I sent it to them.

Back when I bought this gauge, the O2 gauge kit, which included sensor, gauge, and a module that goes between the gauge and sensor alone was about $400. They are now down in the $210 range, I think. For the record, that gauge did help me dial in the fuel map pretty nicely. It was a huge help.

Sam

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Ed
64 Valiant 225 / 904 / 42:1 manual steering / 9" drum brakes

Thanks Ems. I can always count on you. I could get lost in the site for awhile. When I was a young man I had a friend (now deceased, sadly) who was a Navy pilot. He had a genuine , early 68 Olds 442, that was a real 4 speed etc., not just the cosmetic thing they did later. It was lightning fast. He was always showing me stuff on the car that was "aircraft" material. That seemed almost as cool as the car itself.

Sam

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I pulled the gauge cluster, bypassed the ammeter and replaced it with a cheapo sunpro volt gauge (wired to a fusebox ignition terminal and good ground), which fit almost perfectly. It worked great for a few days and now it doesn't zero out when turning the car off, and fully pegs when running, even though my voltage at the battery stays between 13.5 and 14.7 with engine running. 12.53V with engine off.

Must be a bad, china made, junk gauge. Will replace it with another and see what happens.

Should have left the ammeter in, but the horror stories of 50 year old Mopar "thermal events" were scary.

On another note, how did I revive a 9 year old thread?

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"Louise", a 1976 Dart Custom project, (now sadly reverted to being just an "organ donor" to our other project Darts.)

Sam was a Cool Guy!

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1964 Dart GT