[70 barn unseen]

i have a electric autometer procomp temp gauge that reads way off or to hot, I did some driving this weekend and temp gauge read @250+ I took a infread heat gun and checked at top of rad 195,lower @188 ,water pump read 212, car ran great and hard lots of power,started easy after sitting ten mins, so the question is replace gauge or sender also what res, range is the sender

[mike nixon]

i prefer mechanical units.

the drawback is that if you kink the sending tube the guage is junk.


i've had problems with corrosion on electric units and also with erratic readings.

mike

[Junkyard Dog]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by mike nixon:
i prefer mechanical units.

the drawback is that if you kink the sending tube the guage is junk.
</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Why would it be junk? Just get a new tube . . .

[george kujanski]

I thought it was a sealed assy..

George

[riv80]

I have auto meter electric gage. It checked out within 2 degrees in the stove test and within 3 degrees with my heat gun(pyrometer) measured at the crossover where the probe is located. The rad will always be cooler.

[baron_]

i much much much prefer electric

mechanical have those gas filled tubes
like he said - kink it and it's difficult to get working again
Cut it - it's ruined....they're a pain to keep going

an electrical one is simple - just a wire
if it's cut or broken - splice on some more - nothing to worry about

[Simon]

I'm pondering the same issue at the moment, as I am about to replace my un-trusted cheap small-sweep electrical gauge with either a mech or electrical autometer sports comp.

I think the electrical gauges all work by measuring resistance, and that they do this with a single wire to the meter**. This presumably means the gauge relies on the ground from the water crossover back to the dash. Any electrical noise picked up on there can presumably affect the measurement too.
If they were two-wire, and I could get a full sweep gauge that read up above 212F, I would probably go that way.
At the moment, I am thinking I will put up with the hassle of installing a mech gauge & see how it goes.
I am not sure why autometer use metal capillary tube either... wouldn't a thick-walled nylon tube work just as well & yet be more reliable? It would probably need to run in a glass-fibre sheath but still...



**editjust had a look at the autometer installation guides, and it seems their full-sweep gauge does use a two wire connection to the sensor. They also recommend wiring the short sweep / '1 wire' type of gauge with the ground wire running back to the block... if you ran this back as close as possible to the sender & twist the wires together then I guess that should give a pretty good signal. basically, ignore the rest of this post, and check out their installation guides: http://www.autometer.com/tech_instructions.aspx?sid=1

could just be you have a wiring 'enhancement opportunity' ?

[Brad B. Hillebrand]

Sports comp mech. gauges rock!!!! No issues with mine at all. But, I do not have too many miles on the car at this point. I use Mech. when I can. For the trans temp and oil temp I used electric since I was informed that the braided SS lines are not used on those guages. The skinny nylon lines scare me a little, burn it and fluid goes all over. Plus they seem to kink pretty easy.....if you go mech. and can use a braided line you might be better off and not have to worry about it. A 6 foot line is about 50 bucks but worth the cost in my opinion...

Brad