The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk AD- from capilary to elec. temp guage?

does the 54,early 55 electric temp gauge (C-H) fit into the old capilary style (100-220) cluster?

As a point of clarification....in my stock 54,the temp gauge (C-H) is a capillary tube mechanical unit. The gauge cluster is physically different from earlier AD gauge clusters. Most vendors list gauges for 47-53 but one offers to rebuild a unit with a core charge.

If by chance you have a 54 working temp (C-H) gauge and would like to get it off your hands you can contact me through email.

Hope this helps. Dave

Im working on a 48 for a customer of mine and have had trouble with the temp gauge.He came to the shop i work at not long after buying the truck with some running issuse.After looking at the truck i quickly realized the wiring on this truck was a real mess.One (or some) of the previous owners did alot of hacking and splicing to the harness.We are talking a 4 foot run of wire changing size and color 5 times and having 4 butt connectors in it and this was everywhere throughout the truck.None of the origional guages were being used, it had aftermarket ones mounted under the dash.Well the owner knew all this and wanted a new harness and to use the original guage cluster.So i fixed the wiring issue to his coil as a temporary fix and sent him home with it and instructed him to get a painless harness and new guages and bring the truck back after he received them.
By the way. Mid 50's 235 engine. 12volt system,
aftermarket under dash A/C, electric cooling fan, mid 80's Oldsmobile rear end,4 tail lights with non itergrated turn lever on column.

Any way, he brought the truck back for the harness and everthing went off without a hitch. The temp guage never going over 180-185 or so and the cooling fan coming on and of as normal.
About 3 weeks later he come back to the shop with some minor problems for me to resolve.Headlights not working (dimmer swith broken),Didnt like seperate brakes and turn sinals wanted to intergrate them (replace turn switch), wanted a tow light hareness for trailer, and by the way my temp guage isnt working.
Well looking at the guage i could see the needle was past the 220 mark clean out of sight? I checked the coolant level and was only a quart or two low. I asked him "did this thing run hot on you or was there any temp issues you noticed?"
He replied no. So i did all the repaires and installed a new temp guage and all seemed well.About a week goes buy and he comes back with the guage stuck around 220 again? Whats the deal here? "Are you sure this thing isnt getting hot on you?" He says not that i have noticed and its running fine.
Im thinking maybe an intermittant T-stat. So we decide to put new T-stat and waterpump fix guage and go from there.
After doing so i start the truck and watch the guage and it climbs right on up to the max.Im thinking noway the truck is this hot that fast.(truck only running maybe a few minutes). The raditor is cool to the touch and an infrared thermometer shows the front of the head and middle of the head to be about 170 but at the back its over 200. Once the T-stat opens and the coolant flows its a nice even temp all over.
So i take the underdash guage that used to be in his truck and install it into the head and watch it (it has a max reading of 280).The guage goes over 200 then t-stat opens and i drops to 170 and stays there as long as the truck is running.
Apearently there is a air pocket that get back there that couses this temp spike and then everything is fine after that. That keeps breaking the old capilary 220 guages and why i would like to install an electric or higher temp guage but in the original cluster.

Ray-man,
If you drill a small hole in the original thermostat it will bypass enough to allow the air to bleed out but not enough to cause other problems.

I'm running my original '50 gauge on a '62 261 with no problems. It doesn't go above 180 normally.

The thermostat I put into my 261 had a small hole in it, and now I guess I know why!

I had considered drilling a hole also but just installed the other guage for now. Once the t-stat opens the truck runs at 170 with the 160 stat in it.