73 Swinger, 68 engine. After messing with the stock gauges for a while, I’ve decided to just go with aftermarket gauges and fix this once and for all. I am hoping to get some information on which ones are best suited for my vehicle with the least amount of adjustments.

For some reason, I was under the impression that the fuel gauge worked as 0 ohms empty, 70 ohms full, but I am not sure. I couldn’t find any information on this in the FSM. In an earlier post, it was suggested that I either get a programmable gauge (they cost too much) or one that reads full at 10 ohms and empty at 73 ohms. Is this the proper configuration? Is anybody running an aftermarket fuel gauge that is working like a champ?

Looking at SummitRacing, most of the cable type speedometers seem to have 5/8 in.-18 threaded cable input with .104 in. square drive. Is this the proper speedometer without having to change my cable? Is an electrical speedometer an option and how do those work?

Is there anything I should know about the voltmeter and oil gauge? Or are they pretty universal.

Are most electrical water temp gauges universal with this car? I currently have an aftermarket mechanical temp gauge, but the line is too short to go to my instrument cluster.

Any suggestions for gauges is welcome.

Sick6, I will most likely get one of your panels when I figure out what gauges I want to get.

Please consider Stewart Warner gauges. They have many different types/styles and are available through Summit. They supported the Valdosta Slant Six Race, with a lot of merchandise.
www.stewartwarner.com

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Charrlie_S
65 Valiant 100 2dr post 170 turbo
66 Valiant Signet 170 nitrous
64 Valiant Signet
64 Valiant 4dr 170
64 Valiant 4dr 225

I am not trying to downplay Stewart Warner Gauges, I have never used them. And if they support slantsix racing then I would look into them first.

However, I have replaced all of the gauges in my '87 D150:



and all but the speedometer in my '78 W150 with Autometer Gauges. (Well, the tach in the '78 is from Sunpro).



The former uses Autometer's Ultra-Lite Series white face gauges, the latter uses autometer's Traditional Chrome black face series gauges.

Both trucks use the autometer fuel gauge that reads 8-12 ohms full and 73 ohms empty. (empty & full may be backwards there, I do not recall, but those are the ohm ranges). They both work fine with the factory sending units in both my trucks, but I do not know if your car would have a different sending unit.

Autometer water temp gauges come with their own sending unit. Just screw it into the head and wire it up. Same for oil pressure gauges, if you go electrical. Autometer voltmeters do not have a sending unit. they read the voltage that is supplied to them. I.E. Where electrical oil pressure or temp gauges have three wires: ignition switched power, ground, and sending unit, the voltmeter only has two wires: ignition switched power and ground.

I ended up ordering a cut-to length speedometer cable from summit to correctly run my Autometer mechanical speedometer. The factory cable of my '87 fit insdie the speedometer to turn it, but the factory plastic clamp on the cable housing was too small for the fitting on the Autometer speedometer.

$0.02

-S/6

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The "Silver Bullet"
87 Ram D150

Very good choice.


Jess

Another vote for Stewart Warner.

http://www.stewartwarner.com/

I was looking at them before the Valdosta race. Seems like everyone has Autometer, I want something different and a bit of old school if available, SW was around before Autometer. Their sponsorship of the Valdosta race this year, and maybe next, made my mind up to change my SunPro (OK for the $) gages with SW replacements along with one of their digi tach/shift lights.

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Slant Cecil

I went through about 3 Stewart Warner sending units for my electric SW oil pressure gauge. I finally made an aluminum block to hold the gauge sender and the oil light switch and connected the block to the engine with braided hose.

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Joshua

I have mostly VDO gauges that will be going into my Dart. I will be using VDO Vision Series matching electronic oil pressure, 60A ammeter, electronic speedometer, electronic water temperature, and tachometer. I got an Autometer fuel gauge because VDO didn't have something that would easily work with the stock sender in the Dart (as far as I know). I chose the gauges I did because I want to keep the interior looking close to the original (black face gauges w/ orange pointer) as best I can and still use modern gauges. I got my gauges on www.egauges.com.

I haven't tested them in the car yet, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

I had to cut the dash to fit these gauges, and that in itself took a lot of nerve. No going back now (without a lot of welding)!


<BR>

Ive used SW gauges in the 1st few cars I had (way back in the 80s) but even then I couldnt find anyone that had them on the shelf around here, everything had to be ordered. Things haven't gotten better around here since.
Lately Ive found a few old but new in the box Sun gauges at garage sales and such. (before they were sunPRO, haha)Cheap too and made when they still knew what quality was. Luckily I'm not currently in a hurry, I'll be checking Ebay too.

Thanks for the replies and pics. It is hard to tell from the pics, did you use the stock headlight and wiper switches, or are their better options available that I should be using.

I am going to re-use the original dash switches just so I can get the car running again. Also, I wanted to keep as much of the old interior as I could. New switches would make me feel better (how worn are my old switches?), but I do think it is difficult to find switches that operate in exactly the same way as the old ones. One time, I did find an automotive switch supplier, but the name escapes me. Dan Stern would probably be a good guy to ask about automotive switches.

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'68 Dodge Dart 4dr Sedan

whenever your ready for a custom unit RDJ, let me know and we can work one out, there isn't any rush.