Hey I hear ya Bob, on the gauge cluster. That oil line could be longer, but
I was lucky enough, I never broke mine. I have made many improvements,
matter a-fact, just won my 1st trophy, could have won dozens in the past,
trophys
I don't care about. A church here had a car show, so I took the trophy so as
not to make the congrigation feel bad. Only their 2nd Annual show, I took
best antique with my 59 Apache Fleetside. Anyway, bout the gauge cluster, I
give you some advice from my experiences. Since I run a Malory Unilite on my
235, with drop down resister to hold voltage to its proper level and not
destroy
it, I also found an alternator with an internal voltage regulator, so away
go's the old generator (no more brushes), and the voltage regulator gone also.
Steady 13.5 volts, not the 11 to 17 variations when using the old
volt.regulator & generator. Keeps my Malory Unilite safe. In place of the
voltage
regulator, I built a fuse cluster, (under hood), and an aluminum bar with
drilled &
tapped holes. The aluminum bar connects to my battery negative side post.
As you know, yours if not modified relleys on chasis grounds. So this aluminum
is my ground buss. This is the reason I'm telling you this, I had a temp
gauge with intermittant trouble, not engine temp trouble, just faulty gauge,
sometimes all the way hot, all the way cold, sometimes working properly. I
suspected grounds since at times I could reach under the dash and things would
change with the temp gauge (wiring, grounds, etc. I could not find the fault).
Also, when pulling the gauge cluster, when the gauge cluster is fully pulled,
you lost ground. I thought I might have had some intermittant ground loss. I
installed the ground buss, which was a good thing anyway, cause paint, rust,
dust, & whatever, loose screws, you know. Still the gauge had its problems.
After every suspected reason for the problem, the gauge still faulted. So, the
end game here, I bought one of the off the shelf temp gauges from OReilly's
for about 30 or so bucks, and was able to fabricate & also paint the orange
needle white, as original, and so far a year, no temp gauge problems, gauge
through fabrication, is as the old, just replaced the old gauge with the new,
and
fits in the dash after drilling & modifiying, all as it rolled out showroom.
Only the dash must come out for anyone to tell there was a change. Obvioully a
bad original gauge with intermittant trouble, you know the hair fine wires in
the coil. My point is this though, install a ground buss, them screws
holding your gauge cluster can come loose, and you could find yourself with
many
more gauge problems other than the oil & speedometer. Hey, when the temp or
oil changes, I'm watching like a halk while driving. Attach wires where
necessary for grounds, so you are not rellying on the screws holding the
cluster, to
make the circuit. Just my good advice from problems I had. Intermittants
sure can be a pain. SteveColumbusGA@wmconnect.com, 59 Apache Fleetside, the
Road King, Columbus, Ft.Benning GA </HTML>
|