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Marauderjack
02-28-2004, 01:03 PM
Hi All....

Well I got a "wild hair" and took the OP gauge apart to swap the face so it would match the dash gauges...even though I bought a matching Volt meter and they looked OK side by side!! Truth is they look fine in daylight but the backlit dash and the "Real AM" gauges are very different at night!! :help:

The results are very nice even though the scale of the OP gauges are slightly different?? :confused:

If anyone decides to put in the real OP gauge and wants a matching Volt meter I will sell the extra one I have cheap.....;)

Email me if interested!! :D

Marauderjack :pimp:
Fourth Horseman
02-28-2004, 04:57 PM
What is it that you notice being different about the new Autometer gauges? Mine look great. The only thing I didn't do was put the little blue/green cover over the lights, so at night my Autometer gauges have a more yellow tint than the rest of the dash. Getting the gauge panel back in was so difficult on my car that I'm not going to pull it again just to make the color of the gauge lights match. :)
MainEngDwarf
02-28-2004, 05:47 PM
Ok call me stupid but whats wrong with the existing gauges. I keep hearing talk of people installing "real" gauges. So whats the story here.
CRUZTAKER
02-28-2004, 06:25 PM
The OP guage is a bonified dummy light. Notice it never moves even when the car is just idling, versus WOT?

The volt guage actually works, it just doesn't match exactly after replacing the OP guage.
MainEngDwarf
02-28-2004, 06:27 PM
:eek: oh I see said the blind man. Do you have to replace the gauge, sending unit or both?
RF Overlord
02-28-2004, 06:48 PM
^^^what CRUZTAKER said^^^

The stock oil pressure gauge is a fake...as long as you have more than approx 6 lbs, it will always read 60...the voltmeter is real, though...

You have to replace the gauge and the sender...the correct AutoMeter part #, 4327, includes both...available from Summit and Jegs for about $55...
DeadVic
03-01-2004, 01:25 PM
^^^what CRUZTAKER said^^^

The stock oil pressure gauge is a fake...as long as you have more than approx 6 lbs, it will always read 60...the voltmeter is real, though...

You have to replace the gauge and the sender...the correct AutoMeter part #, 4327, includes both...available from Summit and Jegs for about $55...

Has anyone looked at the Nordskog Digital Gauge line? I really like the look of the M9015, m9007 and m9008 (the parts I want). But, the question is do they perform well? I also like the fact you can do a recall of the high temp/reading.
MainEngDwarf
03-01-2004, 05:33 PM
Has anyone just changed the sending unit. The gauge itself may be functional, but the sending unit may just be a switch type. I would like to keep the stock gauge look but with a functional oil pressure gauge.
RF Overlord
03-01-2004, 05:40 PM
Been there, done that, doesn't work...

Well, I haven't tried it personally, but someone here tried it quite a while ago, and it didn't work...the factory sender IS just a switch, but there's a resistor internal to the gauge that would have to be removed for it to function...there's a thread here somewhere about how to swap the faceplates to retain the stock look...and you'd have to disassemble the gauge that far to remove the resistor, anyway...

Oh, yeah...and AutoMeter won't sell just the sender or the gauge separately...you have to buy the set...I did try that one...
MainEngDwarf
03-01-2004, 05:50 PM
Thanks Rf, well so much for that silly idea. I guess I'll try to find that thread about swapping the face plate. Since I will have to order bothe the sender and the new gauge I may try removing the resistor in the old gauge first.
vegasmarauder
03-02-2004, 12:44 AM
I did the guage face swap tech article. It's in a prior post. The factory gauge has different windings inside. There is no resistor in the factory guage (except in some very,very early 300A's and it is a different value so it won't work). It's not as hard as it sounds to switch. And at night with the lights on, it looks just like the factory did it. Instructions for changing the wire lead on the sending unit are there also, so no cutting of wires..
RF Overlord
03-02-2004, 05:24 AM
The factory gauge has different windings inside. There is no resistor in the factory guage (except in some very,very early 300A's

vegas:

Thanks for clarifying that...the post I was thinking of was from way back in the ancient times of MM.net (late 2002/early 2003), so the poster probably had one of the early ones with a resistor...