Mechanical Gauges

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Happy Easter everyone. I would like to install a pair of mechanical guages on my 46 Ford; can't trust the stock gauge. Do these gauges usually come with their own sending units? If so do they install in place of the stock sending units and are they the same size? Any recommended brands of guages I should purchase? Will mechanical gauges work on a 6-volt system? I know-lots of questions here! Shows how much experience I have! Ha-ha. Thanks for any help on this!

Steve
 
Mechanical gauges, by their design, don't have sending units. The only electrical component would be the illumination. Most of them use adapters and compression fittings in place of the senders. They are inherently more accurate than the stock electrical gauges, but have certain drawbacks in that they conduct the fluid they are monitoring into the passenger compartment. This is OK if they don't leak, but I don't know if you want hot oil or coolant possibly spraying out in the passenger compartment if one of them develops a leak. Ether filled gauges are available that eliminate this possiblity as far as the coolant goes. I have a pair under the dash on my '53. They are available from boat supply houses and J.C. Whitney catalogs them, also. All mechanical oil pressure gauges conduct oil to the gauge.
 
Doby, do the ether filled gauges use adapters and compression fittings as well?
 
You may need adapters. These are usually supplied with the gauges. No compression fittings. The ether is sealed in the flexible tubing that runs from the engine to the gauges.
 
Hi :

I have a water temp gauge and a volt gauge that I had in my 40 Ford $ 10.00 each, good shape Thanks Mark
 
The oil gauge on the old Fords are pretty reliable. The temperature gauges seem to vary a lot. I would buy a hand held gun type thermometer with a laser pointer. These run about $90.00 from parts stores or J.C.Whittney. With this you will realy know whats going on as far as cooling. This is also good to check gears, bearings, brakes and any parts that get hot in operation. If you have a part generating heat you can correct the problem before it causes serious damage. This is ideal to check the engine temperatures to see that both sides are the same temperature and see that your stock temperature gauge is somewhere close to what it should be reading. G.M.
 
A 5.00 meat thermometer will give the reading you need in radiator.
 
I am running two mechanical temp gauges on my 50 Ford. The only problem I have with them is they read a little low at higher RPM because the sensors are shorter than the stock ones and don't hit the water as well while driving.
 
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