[JIM4]

All,
1966 galaxie 7 litre vert.
I just rebuilt my motor and don’t like the dummy lights in the dash. Don’t want to over heat or not know if I loose oil pressure. So I want to add electric oil and temp gauges in the least intrusive way possible.
Going for total stock in the restoration and don’t want to cut wiring, drill holes or make these changes that cannot be undone. Whom ever buys this car after me can do what they want with these changes. Put it back to stock, leave the changes or leave them so they can see temp and oil pressure.
is It possible to have dummy lights and two new gauges working at same time???
I need some ideas of choices on the gauges too. Also, looking for electrical gauges not mechanical. So far, I am looking at this SW gauge

Heavy Duty Water Temp Gauges: P/N 284J - Stewart Warner

Type: Electrical Size: 2-1/16" Sender: 280ED-F Product Instructions

www.stewartwarner.com

and this one for oil

Heavy Duty Oil Pressure Gauge: P/N 284L - Stewart Warner

Type: Electrical Size: 2-1/16" Sender: 279B-F Product Instructions

www.stewartwarner.com

I was thinking maybe a fold down bracket for bottom of dash. That way I could fold up and not see it at shows???
Any ideas?

thanks

 

[JIM4]

Hello JIM4,

I have a few thoughts for you to consider. First on the oil pressure gauge and light that's easily doable. All you need is a Tee junction on the oil filter housing oil feed port to house both the original switch sender for the lamp and the oil pressure transducer for the electric gauge.

The temperature lamps and gauge will be a bit more tricky as there is only one real good port on the intake to put a sensor in the constantly circulating coolant. Since you have a heater only car you have coolant flow through your heater core at all times (unlike factory air con cars) you could rig one of the senders in line with the heater core but that's probably going to look bad.

I don't know what your expertise level is in electronics but you could use the S&W gauge sender in the original coolant switch port in the intake and then monitor that variable gauge voltage by means of high impedance comparators and set the trip points on the comparators for the COLD and HOT lamps so thier functionality is retained. With this method you could adjust the trip points and know what temperature the HOT and COLD lamps turn on and off. Of course you'll need a little hysteresis built in to the comparators and that's easy enough.

Just ideas.

Cheers

Desert, thanks for the input. As always spot on. My knowledge of electronics is learned OTJ, not school trained. So, maybe you could pick out a comparator for me to purchase (It’s past my knowledge). I really like that idea, adjusting when my dummy light turn off and on based on temps. How would I connect this setup and where would I put the extra electronics? I assume it’s like a potentiometer?

thanks again.

 

[JIM4]

This is what I did and my dummy gauges still work also. If you wanted to take the gauges back off, just unscrew the bracket. The mounting holes are on the bottom lip of the dash and don't show. As I recall one of the bracket mounting holes was already in position from the factory.
View attachment 172191

Fordwillie,
I think that is the plan. They look really good there, factory almost. So how did you hook up the gauges and keep the dummy lights working? I think 64 and 66 wiring are similar if not the same. Thanks again, really looks good.

 

[JIM4]

You probably don't want to do what I did.....

View attachment 172192

But for a removable gauge panel without drilling holes,
you can get some small thumb screw clamps to hold the panel to the dash.

Galaxiex,
I do not want to place them on the console. Only because of factory restoration needs and wants. Although I do really like that location too. It seems the perfect place to glance at them. They look race ready and the angle, just right. I love the small thumb screw idea too. That might make the cut.

 

[JIM4]

As DesertXL mentioned, you can get an in-line adapter to use a sensor for the coolant temperature. First pic is that type of set up which is installed directly in the heater hose. Second and third pic is what I'm using now. I drilled and tapped one end of the fitting to accept the sender and threaded into the intake manifold. Both ways allowed me to use an electronic gauge and keep the original light.

View attachment 172196 View attachment 172197 View attachment 172198

289galaxie,
Don‘t you just love American ingenuity. So smart, yet so simple. Now just need to decide which way. Thanks for the thoughts.

 

[JIM4]

Hello JIM4,

Everyone has really good alternatives offered to run both sets of transducers (one for lamps and one for gauges). Another side quick note is since you're using all electric gauges (which is a great idea), you can just put them all on a plug and quickly disconnect them and remove them when you want to.

How the above idea negates the possibility of using an electronic adjustable interface to operate your COLD and HOT lamps as the aftermarket temperature gauge when unplugged would really shift the input signal to the comparators input for the lamps.

If you leave all the gauges connected just find a way to fold them out of the way, then building a small electronic switching system for the dash temperature lamps is possible.

Here's a link to a good comparator that would work in this application, Mouser does have it in stock https://www.mouser.com/ProductDetail/Nisshinbo/NJM2903DQ?qs=7jPOr0kCrUCnUTKFtv3DGA==

If you need help with the basic schematic outline for some simple ESD, reverse polarity protection, etc, I'll be happy to help. You won't be able to pick all the value parts till you receive your electric temperature gauge and take some measurements over the range of it's operation as the variable voltage range the sender will alter is ultimately determined by the gauge itself.

Cheers

access denied on the link you sent me to. HTTPS so I think you were signed in to Mouser.
thanks again DesertXL

 

[JIM4]

Thanks Kenny and Darkar,
both good ideas and info. Does anyone know if the SW gauge will work with the factory sending unit? Or does it have to be SW one too?

thanks

JIM

 

[JIM4]

I just got my gauges and still need to figure out the placement of the gauges. Anyone thought of a rally pack like a 66 Shelby. I could mount it easy and remove it if needed. Not sure about viewing the gauges while driving though. Any thoughts???

 

[JIM4]

This is my set up On my 63 Galaxie. I replaced the temp sensor and installed an extension on the oil pressure sensor. So I still have the stock oil pressure light sensor and a mechanical gauge and the in car gauge sensor.
View attachment 172271

Nice, I like