I've seen the SW gauges, but where I saw them they were very expensive.
Since my car had Smith's originally, that's the look I'd like to get to, but
not at any cost. Even brand new Smiths gauges have not been acceptably
reliable or accurate over reasonably short periods of time. BTW, what's the
difference between -3 SS braided brake line hose and Aeroquip gauge hose? I
just go to the industrial supply house and order the hose - it's usually
Aeroquip, because they are industrial suppliers, but not always. The
counter guy showed me, in the Aeroquip catalog, how otherwise identical hose
(the blue oil line hose) was almost twice as much if you bought it using the
auto-parts catalog part number compared to when you specified the industrial
equivalent part number. I also tend to use the bronze push on hose-ends for
low pressure applications, rather than the anodized aluminium equivalents -
cost is a fraction as much, and I think they look better, too.
At 08:16 PM 11/16/98 -0500, you wrote:
>You can still buy the old style SW mechanical gauges. I had to replace
>one in my car due to a busted capillary, and the only visible difference
>was in the paint on the tail end of the pointer. I also found that for
>the oil pressure gauge, -3 SS braided brake line hose was cheaper than
>the Aeroquip gauge hose! I pitted next to a guy who had the oil pressure
>gauge hose on his Lotus blowing off every other session. Wotta mess. The
>AN and -3 solution worked for me.
>
>Brian Evans wrote:
>>
>> I've been using the Autometer old style gauges lately - they kind of look
>> like Stewart Warner gauges from the sixties. Fully mechanical oil pressure
>> and water temp. I've found them so much more reliable than the rebuilt or
>> new Smiths that I used to try and use (once put three rebuilt water temp
>> gauges in over one weekend - and none of them worked for more than five
>> minutes!). I tapped the cylinder head hole to 3/8 NPT to get the water
>> gauge sender adaptor in. I used a 1/8 NPT to -3 AN adaptor in the oil
>> pressure port on the engine, and ran -3 steel braided brake line to the
>> gauge. Aside from the line costing more than the gauge, it's been great - a
>> very fast reading gauge, and the line won't break, melt, have a hose clamp
>> slip, etc. I'm using, for all the very vintage reasons, the original Smiths
>> (non-chronometric) mechanical tach that came with the car. It's so far cost
>> me as much as a Stack, but I'm sticking with it - each incremental
>> investment seems to be small enough that I can't justify the switch to a
>> more modern tach on either economic or performance grounds, and it *does*
>> look right!
>>
>> Any hint's/tips form the boys?
>>
>> Brian (who's GOT all the original gauges, just can't afford to keep them
>> working)
> ...
>
Brian Evans
Director, Carrier Sales
UUNET, an MCI WorldCom Company
(416) 216 5111
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