Help With Trans Temp Gauge

[Black_Noise]

im looking at an electrical trans temp gauge and putting it in a hole where the cigarette lighter is (after making it bigger) in front of the shifter, from what i understand there are 5 wires, the sender wire is like the acutall temp wire and i can hook that up to the drain plug? and then the positive and negative for the gauge and a positive and negative for the illumination, am i right so far? and what exact size are the volt and oil pres. gauges already there 2 5/8 or 2 1/16?? any help will be greatly helpfully

[fastblackmerc]

Gauges are 2 1/16 diameter. If you search on gauges you'll find Autometer part numbers for the UltraLite gauges, angle rings, pillar pods & accessories for our MM's.

[RF Overlord]

black_03, if you wish to match the OEM gauges, then AutoMeter p/n 4357 is the trans temp gauge you want. Are you aware that the OEM oil pressure gauge is a fake? You may want to replace that too while you have the gauge pod out. AutoMeter kit # 4327 is the correct working replacement for the oil gauge.

There are 3 wires on the gauge itself: power, sender, and ground. The illumination uses 2 more wires: power and ground. You can just tap that off the bulb on the adjacent gauge. Both repacement gauges come with the proper senders and mounting/wiring instructions.

[SergntMac]

OEM trannys do not have a drain plug in the pan. If you want to monitor temps from the pan, you'll have to tap a hole.

There has been some serious discussions of where to monitor tranny temps. The hottest temps will be detected as close as you can get to the fluid flowing out of the torque converter. The most stable temps will be detected as close as you can get to the fluid flowing from the tranny cooler. The coolest temps will show in the pan. There's also something about using an Autometer tranny temp manifold, but I'm not that familiar with it. RF?

Each location will provide you with correct data to establish a base line, but each will show different temps. Once you're up and running, you'll learn what's hot and what's not.

[RF Overlord]

There's also something about using an Autometer tranny temp manifold, but I'm not that familiar with it.

I had Lidio install the trans temp manifold when I was there last May. It splices inline with the fluid line running from the transmission to the cooler. As Mac said, that will read the hottest temps of all the possible monitoring points.

[magindat]

black_03, if you wich to match the OEM gauges, then AutoMeter p/n 4357 is the trans temp gauge you want. Are you aware that the OEM oil pressure gauge is a fake? You may want to replace that too while you have the gauge pod out. AutoMeter kit # 4327 is the correct working replacement for the oil gauge.

Wes has the kit for both real oil press and volts. They will match RF's PN for trans temp. www.innovativeinterceptors.com. Site says free shipping if you grab both from him.

There's a thread somewhere here for making the illumination match.

[Black_Noise]

so the drain pan is like my old crown victoria where you remove all 12 bolts (or so) and the hole pan drops at once and fluid goes everywhere??

and what do you mean by fake oil pres gauge, my old crown vics showed the same reading as long as it had oil, it wasnt real time like any of the pontiacs i have owned in my life, is that what you mean its not real time, or it just isnt accurate at all?

what do you do to tap into the line to get a trans temp reading? give me a walk throught so i can have a good idea

[RF Overlord]

so the drain pan is like my old crown victoria where you remove all 12 bolts (or so) and the hole pan drops at once and fluid goes everywhere??

Yup...either get the factory replacement pan with the built-in drain plug (I'll have to look around for the part number), or get one of the universal drain plug kits from Jeg's, Summit, or your favourite local speed shop.

and what do you mean by fake oil pres gauge,

Notice how it always reads the exact same no matter whether the car is hot or cold, or whether it's idling or going 80 MPH? That's because it's actually a glorified idiot light. The sender is an on-off switch: as long as you have more than ~6 lbs of pressure, the switch closes and your gauge reads a fixed amount (usually about 62 lbs). You have to replace the gauge unit and the sender to get a true reading.

what do you do to tap into the line to get a trans temp reading? give me a walk throught so i can have a good idea

You need to install the sender that comes with the gauge into either a service port on the transmission itself, splice it into a cooler line with the manifold mentioned above, or drill and tap the pan to accept the sender. Then you just run a single wire from the sender to the "S" connection on the gauge unit.