Thanks for weighing in Bob. Our helpful friend not only knows everything there is to know about our trucks but appears to have a substantial stash of spare parts as well.

I appreciated the data you supplied. With the ignition turned off, my gauge looks about like yours:


My normal operating temperature is about 175 degrees. At this temperature, my gauge looks like this:


Half gauge is only about 140 degrees.

As you can see, there is a fine line between, "We are all good to go" and "Oh darn, we need to find a place to pull over and shut down".

Jim

 

175° isn't too hot.

If it gets too hot, I wouldn't pull over and shut off the engine. The engine will heat up even more. I think it would be better to pull over and let the truck idle and let the fan and radiator do it's job until it cools down.

 

Abe, you are correct about 175 degrees not being too hot. Actually running a little hotter would probably be better, and I should maybe consider changing thermostats to achieve a higher normal operating temperature. By showing what my gauge looked like at 175 degrees, I was just trying to make the point that given the way my gauge works, there is very little difference between normal and over-heating.

Like Bob, I should block my radiator and determine what a true over heating situation might look like on my gauge. It's entirely possible I may discover my gauge can travel all the way up to the ignition off position and still not reach actual temps that are dangerously high.

Jim

 

Just when I'm starting to get serious about another big road trip out to PA, my temp and oil pressure gauges started acting up. The oil pressure sometimes slowly fades to zero pressure as you are driving down the road. It might stay at zero for five minutes or so before returning to normal. The temp gauge just stopped working entirely. It just stays at the extreme hot position it assumes with the ignition off. At start up, it doesn't move down to cold anymore. Both problems might be as simple as bad connections, but I made the decision to go, at least for the time being, with add-on mechanical gauges:





For the oil pressure, I was able to get a tee fitting so my original electrical gauge still sort of works. It usually reads between 20 and 30 lbs. (when it isn't acting up). Much to my relief, the new mechanical gauge showed a little over 40 lbs at idle. It was raining off and on today, so I didn't go out for a test drive. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to figure out a way to keep my original electric temp sender.

I'm not sure I'm going to keep the add-on gauges. First off they are not in a good place for seeing them. The turn signal switch is right in the line of sight, but I didn't know where else to go with them. To my eye they also look out of place. I've got a lot of time and money invested in my original gauges, and after Truckstock, I might try to get them working again. Something new and Chinese somehow doesn't seem quite right on a 70 year old truck, and an ex-military truck at that.

Another thing acting up (and new and maybe Chinese) is my phone and GPS charging set-up. It's been blowing fuses. This will need to be fixed before the trip to PA--plus I need to put some miles on and make sure there are no leaks and the new gauges are reliable.

Jim

 

Sounds like a ground problem to me Jim, I would start at the battery and clean every connection, positive and negative, and if you see any wire that looks shabby with insulation failing replace it or at least tape it up
Ed

 

I made a test run today, and the new gauges seem to be working well. Operating temp seems to be just under 180 degrees. Oil pressure at highway speeds is about 55 lbs. There aren't any apparent leaks. That's the good news. The bad news is the gauge placement, besides being awkward to read, interferes with the ability to fully set the emergency brake. This difficulty nearly caused an accident this morning. My daughter-in-law had to step up and avert disaster as my truck was rolling unoccupied down a fairly steep hill. The gauge placement will need to be changed! I have to admit though, having seemingly accurate temp and oil pressure readings was nice and something I will appreciate out on the road far from home.

Jim

 

I have run those mech OP gauges and had the thin Teflon tubing come out of the ferrule, and squirt oil all over my pants leg. Or break inside the engine compartment and soak everything there. Oil pressure isn't going to change in 2000 miles, but temperature "could". I'd vote for ditching the OP gauge and moving the Temp gauge over so you can use the e-brake. Take the OP gauge and fittings along, you can always connect it up if you feel there is some problem.

What thermostat are you running? 190° running temp is better for the engine.

PS -- 3twinridges posted how to adjust the stock gauges to a correct reading, if they work but are off.

 

Hi Ross. Thanks for weighing in. I always respect your experience and advice. Having just a temp gauge would certainly solve the emergency brake issue. I thought it was interesting that the temp gauge came with a much more substantial looking tube and fittings. It has what appears to be a metal core encased with a metal spiral spring-like outer covering. The fittings at each end were attached in the manufacturing process. The oil pressure tube on the other hand is plastic with no outer covering and do-it-yourself compression fittings. It makes sense to just carry the oil pressure gauge as you suggest and hook it up only when an "official" oil pressure reading seems warranted. Ideally I'll just be able to cap off my tee. Getting an official mechanical oil pressure reading will then only take a few minutes and won't even involve getting my hands dirty. Thanks for the good advice as always.

Jim

 

I forgot to address the thermostat question. I'm not sure what thermostat I'm running, but think I took the advice of the guy who rebuilt the engine. I agree that an operating temp of something a little less than 180 degrees is on the cool side. I'll have to look into adjusting my original temp gauge again after TS. I think it stopped working because of a poor connection. I was surprised how nasty and corroded the connection had become when I took the sending unit out to make room for the new mechanical one.. A new electrical sending unit was put in about two years ago. The gauge was new at that time too. They never worked quite right though as documented in this thread.

Jim

 

This has kind of morphed into my go-to gauge and electrical problems thread, and I have a related question today. As I was doing a little clean-up on the dash, I decided to add an indicator light for the turn signals. I figured this would be nice easy straight forward little project for me, well within my limited abilities to accomplish. Of course there were problems.

I have a two prong flasher, and the LED indicator light I installed has two wires. With one of the indicator light wires grounded and the other one touching one of the flasher prongs, the indicator light comes on when the key is turned on. When the turn signals are switched on, the the indicator light stays lit but doesn't blink.

When the grounded indicator light is connected to the other flasher prong, the indicator light blinks (as I was expecting and hoping) when the turn signals are switched on. When the turn signals are switched off, the indicator light stops blinking but for some reason stays lit. This surprises me. Why do the turn signals react differently from the indicator light when they both are receiving the same "signal" from the flasher?

Here are some Pics:

Note the ugly GPS power cord and receiver for the rear view camera.



Everything neat and cleaned up--broken speaker grill replaced.


I purchased the speaker grill and radio delete panel almost 2 years ago, and it took until now to finally get around to putting them on the truck. The indicator light as you can see is quite bright and it would really be best if it turned off with the turn signals. Hopefully there's a simple explanation for why it doesn't. Thanks.

Jim

 

I'm assuming your flasher is in line between the main power and the switch, correct? There is still power going through the flasher to the switch, but when the switch is turned off, no power is going through the switch to the signal lamps but there is still power to go to your dash lamp. The flasher is basically a self resetting, low amp circuit breaker that overloads from the current powering the 4 lamps, and resets again quickly, repeatedly. The led lamp doesn't draw enough current to overload the flasher, so it just stays on.

If it were me, I'd be using the arrows in the speedometer for your indicators, and tapping into the front lamp wiring to run the indicators. If you don't have the appropriate bulb sockets, they are available and easy to install.

 

Thanks Wayne. I would say yes to your first question. The indicator lights in the speedometer never worked very well, but then I never made much of an effort to get them to work either. If I were to get power for the indicator light from the headlight wire harness, I suppose I'll need run a wire from both sides. What really prompted the indicator light idea was the fact that the speaker grill replacement I purchased had an unexpected 3/8th inch hole in it just above where the ignition key is. I didn't notice it until the new grill was in place. The hole seemed just about the right size and position for an indicator light, and I thought, "Why not?"

Jim

 

I think to get a single bulb to indicate that either of the turn signals are on, you'd need to change from a 2-pole flasher to a 3-pole. The extra contact is for an indicator, marked "P" for Pilot.

 

If the flasher isn't sending power to the signal lights when the turn signal switch is off, why (how) is power getting through to the indicator light? Thanks.

Jim

 

Thanks Ross. Just changing to a 3 pole flasher could be an easy fix. The 2 pole flasher was part of the new wiring harness I purchased a few years ago. I quick look at the Mid Fifty catalog indicates they have 3 pole flashers, but I didn't see any 3 pole receptacles.

Jim