electronic vs. mechanical guages

[gary]

i want to put some extra guages in my truck, so when i got to the old parts store, i realize i've got my shoice of two kinds. anybody got any opinions on the two?? seems like the electrical ones are a bit easier to set up, but other than that, i know nothing...looking at the three pack kits, with volts, oil pressure, and temp, if that helps......

 

[vwguy]

the three pack kits are usually an ammeter, oil pressure, and water temperature. it really doesnt matter to much on which kind you use as long as the guage is a quality guage. i only reccomend name brand guages like autometer and vdo, those cheap wal mart kits just suck and they wont last very long and in my opinion arent very acurate and their senders break and problems like that.so go with a name brand and it doesnt matter if its electric or mechanical.


its not speeding unless its a triple digit

 

[Jimmy8]

All we have ever ran in our race cars and prerunners are mechanical, and have never had problems with them.

 

[EQuin]

Can water temp gauges be used to measure the temp going to and coming from a transmission cooler? Or can they only be used for radiator coolant temps? Any temp gauges y'all recommend for transmission cooler outgoing and incoming lines?

Thanks for any additional info. Take care,

Ed

 

[BradM]

Autometer and others make different gauges for trans temp, oil temp, water temp, etc. I believe they are all the same principle. I am certain that the differences are in the scale of the gauge (what temp range is and where it starts) and the label on the front. The mechanical gauges all use a thermocouple. I suppose different gauges might come with different adapters. Electrical gauges probably come with different senders that for various locations. The simple answer is yes you can use a water temp gauge for oil temperature.

As for mechanical vs. electrical: I have never had a good mechanical gauge fail but have seen senders for electrical gauges quit or other related problems. You get what you pay for!

 

[Kritter]

A temp guage is calibrated to read temp. No matter what you put it in it will read the temp. Just make sure the range is sufficient for your application. I have ran electrical and mechanical gauges. I think the electrical are easier to install and I think safer because pressurised lines are not in the cockpit, but the mechanical are more reliable becaseu they dont use sending units.

Kris

 

[EQuin]

Thanks, Brad and Kritter, for the excellent info.

Take care,

Ed

 

[Jimmy8]

We just used a water temp guage for our transmission and it works great. If I could recommend guages it would have to be stuart warner. Auto meter are good, but I have found nothing works better than stuart warner. Just my opinion though.

 

[EQuin]

Thanks for the info, Jimmy. Do you know of a website or a place that sells Stuart Werner gauges?

Take care,

Ed