The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Electrical Bay Electric temp gauge 54 /551st.

Was there an electric temp gauge available from the factory in 1954/55?

No, not on an USA Chevrolet truck.

I think i have one, while going through my old dash gauge collection for guidance in rebuilding my good set i discovered that the temp gauge on one is electric. I am sure it came from a small dump truck. I am in Canada but i don't know if the truck is Canadian. Will do some digging on that.
If somebody did makeup the gauge they sure did a good job.

Here are 3 photos from Lenny of his 54/55 (GM/Chevrolet) Canada temp gauges.

It looks like it has electrical connections on the back.

Yes Tim they are electrical connections it also has the rubberized insulator pad.
Pics won't open for me.
Len

Spoke with truck owner who gave me the old gauges they are from a Big front cab( large fenders), he is not sure what size the truck was just that it was a short style dump truck. Because of the location it was found in he thinks that it came from the American Navel base Argentia and could have been a Military truck.
Ant thoughts out there.

Had to bring this up again ,somebody must know something about this gauge.If i try it will i need to reduce the voltage to 6 volt or is 12 volt ok on a temp gauge.
HELP

Lenny,

To be safe, use a voltage reducer. Maybe a Runtz-style reducer as sold for fuel gauges. Classic Parts has one at a good price.

This is a real oddity. Thanks for sending the photos for posting - some of us skeptics would not have believed this without seeing it.

Good luck.

Thanks Tim, I will take your advice, it may be awhile before i get this done but i will let you know how it works out,
Len

I think that some of the buses used the 12V electic guages. The reason that I say this is that I recall probably 49 years ago, they showed me a bus that was in for service and told me hoy it would have been an ideal donor for my truck as my dad had converted it to 12V by then and it had a big old ugly woltage drop on the firewall that I wanted to be rid of.

So Greg H. do you think the gauge i have is 12 volt?

I don't know. To be safe, I would first try hooking it to an electric sending unit through 6V with the sender in a known temp pan of water. If it barely moves, you could try 12V then. I don't want to tell you something and be responsible for you trashing your guage.

Understand completely, will let you know how it all works out. I am told i will need to know what amp's are being drawn so we are working on that and the 12 to 6 reducer.
Thanks