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The only gauges in my truck that “work” are the ammeter and oil pressure gauge. Ammeter moves on startup, oil pressure reads high on startup, drops down to the n in normal.
About a year ago I started adding aftermarket gauges. First a water/oil/voltmeter. Truck runs at 180-190 when hot. 80 psi cold with 25 hot. 40 psi at 1500 rpm highway. 12 volts key on 13.5-14 when running. Very steady in all that stuff so for the time being I think my truck is running good. Also installed an aftermarket fuel gauge on my front tank.
Im to the point now where I’m sick of having all this extra stuff on the dash. I need to sink some money into getting my factory dash working reliably, but should it really be trusted?
Im using cheap eiquss brand gauges now. My fear is getting my factory set working and removing the aftermarket set, only for the factory gauges to fail or read wrong and damage my truck.
i think all I need is a temp gauge, and re run my missing fuel gauge wiring. I’d probably keep the voltmeter long term, but I’ll hide it somewhere it’s not in the way. And I’ll keep my fuel gauge for now until I can figure out my factory one. What do you guys think, are the factory gauges to be trusted? Or should I run both sets to really be safe?
You can always have your stock ammeter made into a voltmeter (Look up Rocket mans voltmeter rccinnovations.com) and then mount it in the stock location with some very easy wire modifications.
Tbruz
The only gauges in my truck that “work” are the ammeter and oil pressure gauge. Ammeter moves on startup, oil pressure reads high on startup, drops down to the n in normal.
About a year ago I started adding aftermarket gauges. First a water/oil/voltmeter. Truck runs at 180-190 when hot. 80 psi cold with 25 hot. 40 psi at 1500 rpm highway. 12 volts key on 13.5-14 when running. Very steady in all that stuff so for the time being I think my truck is running good. Also installed an aftermarket fuel gauge on my front tank.
Im to the point now where I’m sick of having all this extra stuff on the dash. I need to sink some money into getting my factory dash working reliably, but should it really be trusted?
Im using cheap eiquss brand gauges now. My fear is getting my factory set working and removing the aftermarket set, only for the factory gauges to fail or read wrong and damage my truck.
i think all I need is a temp gauge, and re run my missing fuel gauge wiring. I’d probably keep the voltmeter long term, but I’ll hide it somewhere it’s not in the way. And I’ll keep my fuel gauge for now until I can figure out my factory one. What do you guys think, are the factory gauges to be trusted? Or should I run both sets to really be safe?
Mine are actually pretty darn accurate. I have an aftermarket temp guage hooked up and it moves accordingly with that and I know once or twice I pushed the range on a tank of gas, guage was right at E and sure enough i ran out.
Mine all work and seem accurate. The fuel gauge was off (, read less than actual) by 1/4 tank. I found corrosion on both the connection to the sender and quite a bit in the connection at the firewall. Once cleaned it is closely accurate now.
Speedometer is about 5mph fast. For example, if it says I'm doing 45, I'm actually doing about 41
The OEM was designed to be reliable and for the most part they are. Clean connections, good condition wiring and using quality sending units you should be ok. What about getting the rest of the OEM to work? Getting the temp and gas gauge to work should not that hard to figure out. Alot of folks have advice in that dept.
Maybe you just need to put those secondary gauges in a different spot? Are they just hanging from the bottom of the dash on a bracket now? Like in pic #1? I mean you spent the $ and the effort to install them, so you might as well continue to use them as back up. Maybe work out a place they fit "look" wise and go from there. Free ideas I have seen over the years of FTE'ing it.
My OEM gauges seem to be reliable and accurate. The only improvement would be if you could correlate gauge positions with some real numbers. The only exception is the ammeter which I have converted to a voltmeter via "Rocket Man" also. Now it is accurate for volts in place of amps.
if I wanted them out of sight id put them in the glovebox.
where I live, if they cant see them then no one wants to brake in to get them. out of site out of mind.
Mine seem to be fairly accurate-ish. What's funny to me is how many modern car's gauges do not read true data. Had a BMW for a short time - it's temp, volt and oil pressure gauges wouldn't read live data. They would shoot to the middle just to let you know you are in "normal operating range". The temp gauge would shoot to hot seconds before you overheat and destroy your engine. Same with oil pressure. Stupid.
On some of my projects I have installed full mechanical guages and tach under the hood. Makes life a lot easier during tunes and when sorting out problems. Biggest problem with mechanical guages in the cab was the poly line for oil pressure. If you switch it to copper and cover it, no more worries about bursting.
Thanks guys. When I get home I’m gonna unhook my mechanical oil pressure gauge and just use my electric oil gauge.
i would dig it if the factory gauges did have numbers but since my actual numbered gauges are so consistent I can tell now what temp/pressure it what.
ill probably leave the ammeter alone and just put the voltmeter in the glovebox. I’ll keep the fuel guage and temp gauge for now. I think I probably just need the actual gauge for the instrument cluster for the temp.
Previous owner seems to have cut all the undercab fuel wiring away? And with my fuel tanks I need to get the front and back wiring and the switch wiring set right to the front tank. I’ve gotten the gauge to peg out before with jumper wires. I think that means it’s not grounded right? I’ve spent a lot of time on it before, gave up and wired my own lol. My aftermarket bounces around a little, and it’s goes empty quick, like first half of the tank on the gauge will last 4-5 day. But the last half on the gauge lasts about a day.
I’ve done the factory plus aftermarket sets before and I don’t like how it makes my truc look like a racecar. The factory instrument panel looks REALLY good to me. Ive got a cb and a hard mounted USB port under the dash so it all get cramped in there with the gauges.
My aftermarket bounces around a little, and it’s goes empty quick, like first half of the tank on the gauge will last 4-5 day. But the last half on the gauge lasts about a day.
That could be due to the taper of the sides of the fuel tank.
All of my gauges work, and I regard this era of Ford gauges to be reliable and 'accurate' enough. The only real known trouble maker on a Ford cluster of this vintage is the Instrument Panel Voltage Regulator, which usually causes the Fuel, Temperature, and Oil Pressure, gauges to peg out on high, or maybe not work at all.
My '88 Mustang has the next generation of gauges, and the Temperature gauge has gone bad...
On my '05 Mustang, I had to replace the little stepper motors for its gauges! Four out of six of them were malfunctioning, and when I got it apart, only one of the stepper motors turned easily. I guess these are the next generation of gauges after my '88's gauges...
Mine work, but I don't trust them. My factory oil pressure gauge sits just below max, even after the oil is totally warmed up. It's still reading high at idle, even though my aftermarket gauge is reading 30 psi. My factory coolant gauge pretty much stays in sync with my aftermarket gauge though.
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