Anyone done this? The truck in question is my boss's 80 F100, 300/4 speed. It currently has the stupid oil and amp idiot lights... I have the guages and senders, but, looking at the wiring schematic, it appears that some wiring is left out on the trucks w/idiot lights....
The truck is a LWB and has 60,000 miles on it, and needless to say is just like brand new and almost show worthy, so, I'd like to keep everything as stock looking as possible, stock would be murder, manual steering, 3 on the tree, and no radio :-(
Evan MacDonald
82 F100 FlareSide 4wd
HD 300-6 9.5:1 CR
Clifford 270H cam
Hedman Hedder
SBC valved 66 240 head
Headlight Relays - Delanty Style
NP435(6.69 low)
NP 205
3.55 Geared ARB'd 9" & Trac-Locked TTB
31x10.50/15 Cooper Discoverer LT's

 

Greetings! My '81 van came equipped with the idiot gauges (electric) but I've always had more confidence in analog gauges myself so I simply purcased two "T" s that had the same male end thread and pitch and the corresponding female ends to match the existing sender and the sender for my analog gauges. Just a little teflon tape and now I have plural gauges. The oil sender should be mounted in an oil hole in the rear left side of the engine block (left side being the driver's side) and the water temp sender is located opposite on the right side of the engine block just under the exhaust manifold. While it's easy to do this set up in a van given the removable engine "doghouse" it will proabably be more difficult in a pickup. Good Luck!

 

 

I bought some auto meter mini gauges (work great). The oil is an electronic sending unit that I teed off the factory unit (so both work), I do not like the ones that require you to run a plastic tube thru the firewall and actually pump oil thru the tube to get the pressure reading. I put the water temp sending unit on the opposite side of my factory sending unit (V8) so both work. The voltmeter simply hooks up between any hot source under the dash and a good ground (an ammeter would hook up a little different), so all the gauges are independent of the factory units. I mounted the 3 gauge cluster in the middle of the dash just above the heater controls, radio. It mounts to the overhang, I drilled a couple of small holes behind the gauges in the plastic face to run wires, and the gauges came with adapters to angle the gauges toward the driver. It's a simple installation with good instructions packed with the gauges.

'82 F150 2WD w/351W (orig 300 I6)
Slik

 

What I want to do with the 80 is put in some stock guages.... I have a complete set.... My truck, on the other hand, has no less than 10 aftermarket guages slated for installation.....
Evan MacDonald
82 F100 FlareSide 4wd
HD 300-6 9.5:1 CR
Clifford 270H cam
Hedman Hedder
SBC valved 66 240 head
Headlight Relays - Delanty Style
NP435(6.69 low)
NP 205
3.55 Geared ARB'd 9" & Trac-Locked TTB
31x10.50/15 Cooper Discoverer LT's

 

I have done this on my 78' I'm not sure if the gauge clusters and plug are the same or not. Anyway, the only hard thing will be the amp gauge on your truck I'm not sure if they were using the volt meter instead of the Amp meter or not in that year. But all that I did was get an oil sending unit for a gauge equiped truck and had to rearange some wires on the plug for the insturment cluster. On my truck the idoit light cluster had like a 10 pin plug and the gauge cluster uses a 15 pin plug or something like that. Needless to say the number of wires hooked up to the cluster remains the same the just leave some empty spots in the plug. All I did was traced the printed circuit board on the back of the cluster to figure out which wires went were. But like I said my Amp gauge wasn't reconnected because the thing nevre worked in the first place and second I am using one of the newer 3G 130Amp alternators on my truck. If more info is needed let me know

David Wild www.geocities.com/davewild_78f150/index.html
78' F150 300six
79' F250 351M
78' F150 300six EFI

 

I HAVE A 82 3/5 TON 4WD THAT I AM PUTTING A 3 PACK GAUGE SET IN TO THE RIGHT OF THE STEERING COLUMN RIGHT UNDER THE DASH. THE LOOK PROFESSIONAL BUT WHERE I GOT THEM THEY COVER THE CUBBY HOLE RIGHT THERE BELOW THE DASH. NO BIGGIE IT HIDES THE WIRES AND ALL OTHER STUFF THAT GOES WITH GAUGES. THE INSTRUCTIONS SUCKED FOR INSTALLING THE GAUGES AS I SEE ABOVE I GOT MY TEMP THERMOTER I NTHE RONG SPOT!! I INSTALLED THE SAME SET OF GAUGES ON A 83 3/4 TON 2WD A YR AGO AND TOOK ME 5 HOURS TO DO IT AS THE INSTRUCKINS SUCK BIG TIME BUT I GOT IT FIANLLY WITH A LOT OF PHONE CALLS TO A MECHANIC FRIEND OF MINE. NOW I HAVE T OGO REINSALL ME AMP METER A S I BURNED THE WIRES UP ON IT. INSTRUCTIONS SAY TO GO TO "A" SIDE OF SOLINOID WHIC HIS BATT SAIDE AND I DID. THEY ALSO SAY TO TAKE ALL THE OTHER WIRES OFFS THAT SIDE AND GO TO NEG SIDE OF AMP METER. I HAD NO OTHEWR WIRES SO I WENT STRIGHT TO BAT FOR GROUNF. BIG MISTAKE BURNED A LOT ODF NEW WIRES UP. I NEED TO FIND A DIAGRAM THAT SHOWS WHICH FUSES R WHICH UNDER THE HOOD NOW SO IF NEONE HAS NESUGESTION FOR SITES OR HAS ONE THAT THEY COULD SCAN IN AND EMAIL ME PLEASE DO!!!

TY


RUFFIE

PS I DONT TRUST THE IDIOT LIGHTS IS Y I REPLACE THEM WITH GAUGES BUT I CANT GET MY GF WHO WORKS AT AN AUTO PARTS STORE TO UNDERSTAND Y I WANT THEM INSTALED.

GO FIGURE I HELP PAY HER WAGE AND SHE COMPLAINS ABOUT IT!!!! LOL