I’ve been searching past threads, without luck so far. I swear I’d read of businesses that could restore the Ammeter and Oil Pressure gauges used in the Camper Specials. I intend to upgrade, and want to have the used ones I bought off eBay (working condition unknown) gone through and tested. So far, I found threads listing places to rebuild speedos, but not the gauges. Any recommendations?

 

Does your truck have the round speedometer with round Oil/Amp gauges on either side of the speedometer or fan shaped gauges within the speedometer?

Does your truck have the Custom Cab/Ranger plastic chrome instrument cluster bezel w/sweep speedometer?

 

Bill, my truck’s a 66 CC, with the sweep speedo. I bought a camper special gauge cluster bezel w/gauges, and am compiling parts to add the additional ammeter and oil pressure gauges. I’d like to have those refurbished before I install. I’m ordering DC’s re-popped Instrument cluster bezel, not sure the correct term. I have the adapter that allows both idiot light and gauge sending units, plus the correct 80 lb. sending unit for the gauge. Have not yet gotten the wiring harness that allows the use of the gauge, probably need to source a used one. I’m slowly gathering parts. I will probably have the sweep speedo refurbished and stash it away as well.

 

C5TZ-10838-A .. Plastic Chrome Sweep Speedometer Instrument Cluster Bezel

There are no holes in this bezel for the Oil/Amp gauges, so you'll have to cut them out using a hole saw. Parts catalog sez the holes are 2 3/16" diameter

There are two sleeves that fit into the holes, then the gauges fit into the sleeves. The sleeves are the same for both gauges.

There's a lip around this bezel, the inside of it was painted flat argent to reduce glade. Carpenter didn't paint it, so you'll have to.

I'll look and see if anyone has these parts NOS and if so, I'll send you a P/M with the results.

 

If the oil pressure gauge works like the 67-72 & 73-79 gauges, which I suspect it does, it is very easy to test for operation.

You'll need a couple of 1.5V batteries, like a aa cell, & two wires with alligator clips on at least one end. Clip the alligators on the studs on the back of the gauge. Touch the other end of the wires to the + & - on the battery. Gauge should go to about 1/3 scale if it is good. Reverse polarity if it doesn't work on the first try. Use both batteries, gauge should rise about 3/4 scale. Temp & fuel can be tested the same way. It should be easy to wire. One wire from the gauge to the sender, another wire from the gauge to power out on the IVR, instrument voltage regulator.

If the amp is the same as the later trucks test it with an almost dead 1.5V battery. It will go full scale with around 1 V. Reverse polarity, it will go the opposite direction. Not sure how to wire that one, they use a shunt in the wire harness, somewhere around the alternator wiring. It is possible to replace the guts of the gauge with an aftermarket volt meter & use it that way.

If the gauges test good, touch the needles up with an appropriate color & you're good to go.

 

Could you elaborate on this? P/N? I am suspect of my sender.

 

E4ZZ-9278-A (replaced: B7T-9278-A - C7ZZ-9278-A - C9ZZ-9278-A) .. Oil Pressure Sending Unit - Use with Oil/Amp Gauges (Motorcraft SW-1547-B) / Available from Ford & Auto Parts Stores

1957 and later myriad FoMoCo vehicles.

 

Not trying to start an argument ND. But when my original sender, B7T-9278-A, Autolite SW-383 these are stamped 80 and were made by King-Seeley, died. I found that none of the replacement senders gave an accurate reading with an 80-psi gauge. Because they are all 90 psi senders. And Ford stopped putting numbers on the gauge in 67 so they didn't care what it read as long as the needle was in the normal range.
I tested a bunch of senders on the engine against an accurate gauge. The results were any sender that has US PAT, 4,079351 stamped on it, doesn't matter whose box it is in, is a 90 PSI sender and won't work.
The only senders that I ran across that gave reasonably accurate readings with the 80 PSI gauge were the original SW-383's and an E-Tron PS-16. There are likely other senders that will work I just got tired of wasting money and time testing the things.
This is part of my collection of senders. The two on the left were the only ones that worked for me.

 

Maybe this place?

https://g.co/kgs/9iGcPY

 

So, I’ve had to rethink this. After reading a couple other threads, I realized that when I upgrade the alternator to this:

https://www.qualitypowerauto.com/ite...-Ear-Mount.htm

Then, factory Ammeter possibly won’t be accurate, having a 150 amp alternator. This I’ll do before I change to the Camper Special gauges. Then I recalled that members instig8er and 53deere and others had converted their ammeters to volt meters. I’m not sure how much draw there’d be on the alternator driving down the road, powering the trucks’ starting battery, a 100 amp hour Life-Po 4 battery, a small refrigerator, and other assorted small loads. I fear it might well be more than the 60 amps that the factory ammeter is capable of monitoring. I suppose I could I could just install it and check the draw, and if it pegs the ammeter, go head and convert to a volt meter. 53deere’s instllation looks very nice to me, as seen in this thread, post #10:

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...r-install.html

 

I read a thread that mentioned using an inductive type ammeter instead of the factory ones. Is anyone aware of one that would look original enough to use? The only one I found , by Autometer has a digital readout, and would look out of place to me. I would like to have the ammeter, and a volt meter as well. The high output alternator I will install won’t allow that stock ammeter. Possibly the idiot light as well.

 

Seems like Stewart-Warner had a line of vintage gauges at one time. Datcon might have something. As long as you connect the gauge with a shunt it will work. The original gauge was shunted that is what that copper strip on the back of the gauge was for. Might I ask what on earth are you running that would need 150 amps? Also, what is your plan for wiring since the original wiring in these trucks isn't sized for that much amperage.

 

The alt is 150a peak/100a at idle. All new circuiting comes from a panel in the camper, which is supplied from a 100 ah LifePo 4 auxiliary battery which draws a lot when charging. It also needs to be charged at about 14.6 volts, so an adjustable voltage regulator is also in the mix. I already have in place #2 gage wiring (welding cables) from the truck’s battery that hit’s a continuous duty solenoid so there is no tie between the truck battery and the coach battery when in camp and engine is off, preventing discharge of the trucks’ battery. After the continuous duty solenoid and before the auxiliary battery is 70 amp fuse. The alternator can , while going down the road, charge both the batteries, a fridge/freezer in the camper, plus the few additional loads I may be using at any given time , such as stereo, fog lamps, higher wattage Hella E-Code Headlamps. Those last three items are all new wiring from an auxiliary fuse panel fed from the truck battery. No new loads have been added that use the trucks’ original wiring. I actually took some load (headlights) off the factory wiring by setting up the relay system for them, one circuit for the high beams, one for the lows coming off the new under-hood fuse panel. I didn’t want the extra load presented by the higher wattage lamps going through the headlight switch. I might be able to go down to a 100a peak/65a idle alternator.

 

Here was my solution for adding a voltmeter if anyone wants to duplicate. The gauge was a Sunpro CP8215. I removed the bezel that came with the gauge and added the chrome bezel from the factory amp meter. The spacing of the studs on the gauges was a little different so I cut out the back of the factory mounting cup and welded in the piece that came with the Sunpro gauge. After that it bolted right in, add keyed power and ground to the gauge and it's good to go.

 

I used Rocketman's Classic Cougar Innovations (http://www.rccinnovations.com/) to restore my '66 F100 Custom Cab oil pressure and ammeter gauges. Actually, since my ammeter had cooked the gauge/wiring once, I decided to just have him convert the ammeter to a voltmeter, then I removed the large wires running between the ammeter and the starter solenoid. I left the melted lens cover, but the gauge face does have volts instead of amps.