The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The HiPo Shop Stock gauges with modern drivetrain components?

I would like to use the stock gauges in a 1950 Chevy 3100. Everything they attach to will be different. Will they work? what does it take to make them work?

I have the dash apart while doing other things and could rebuild the guages but I don't want to waste the time and money if they will not work.

The speedo will be driven by a 700R4 auto trans.
The fuel gauge will read the sender in a fuel tank from a 2000 S-10.
The engine temp sender and oil pressure sender will be in a 350 Chevy engine.
The whole electrical system will be 12 volt and I would prefer a volt gauge over an amp gauge.

Are most of these things doable without a big hassle or expense or should I just start thinking about how to mount new gauges?

Any knowledge or experience would be appreciated.

Mods, feel free to move this to interiors or electrical if that is more appropriate. I just thought the readers of this section would have more experience in keeping the old gauges with modern components if it is possible.

What is the year/make/model of truck you are referring to - the one in which the gauges will reside?

Fixed that in top post.

In a 1950 the ONLY gauge you have to do anything with is the gas gauge. The oil pressure and temp gauges are mechanical so they don't care what engine they're hooked to although you would probably want to swap out the 15# oil pressure gauge for a 60# one. You can drill and tap the left rear coolant runner for a temp sender fitting to keep the 1950 sender stock or send it off to Carter for a longer capillary tube to reach the factory sender hole in the V8 intake and/or head. Amps are amps, 6v or 12v so the factory gauge is fine. A universal tank sender for the fuel gauge can be used, 30-90 ohms IIRC but check on this. A Runtz resistor on the voltage side of the gas gauge and every gauge will work like it's 1950 again. If your transmission has a mechanical speedometer gear then the cable is a direct bolt up. If electonic someone else will have to jump in with advice. I test drive one with a gps stuck to the windshield and compare the speedo reading with the gps and figure the percentage it's off and then pick a set of drive/driven gears that will correct it. If you are going to have a lot of accessories I suggest you run a wire from the ACC terminal on the ignition switch to an auxillary fuse box because it gets crowded with just one terminal to hook to. If you're really loading it with power everything, especially an electric fan, then run a wire from the switch to a relay that has a 12g or 10g wire from the battery through the relay to the fuse block. I like one with working factory gauges over ones with round ones hung everywhere and it's so easy to do.

Amps are amps but having more accesories draws more of them, you can overload an old ammeter. If so you're better off not using it at all. a voltage gauge is a better way to monitor battery and charging system.
The link above and again here addresses the ammeter to voltage swap
http://www.speedometershop.com/enc-pag.htm

Here's an idea for updating the speedometer, and the second post there is a link to yet another way to do it.
https://www.stovebolt.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=847088

Grigg

Or you can make up a shunt and run just enough through the gauge for a reading rather than carry the entire current. His first sentence states, "I would like to use the stock gauges". If not, then disregard all of first response.

Good to have options, he may want stock appearing and better functioning gauges.

If the question is simply will stock gauges work the answer is yes.
There's usually more to the question though, and most of the time if were changing things already we want things to work better. With choices the original poster can, research, evaluate, and decide.

The speedo is probably the biggest challenge. If you are using a modern electronic trans, then an adapter will need to be purchased.
Cable X is one. (perhaps the only one)

http://www.highperformancepontiac.com/tech/hppp_1007_electronic_speedometer_converter/viewall.html
Price is the only problem. $325 bucks. Ouch.

Nobody should run an old ammeter, they are a fire waiting to happen. Some old ideas in old things are not good ideas. Buy an old house and keep the galvanized pipes and old exposed wiring with no ground and park the truck with the ammeter in the garage and see what burns or floods first. Voltmeter is just fine, you can find gauges that look original and are much more accurate. Don't count on the speedo working just because it "bolts up". Don't count on the other/new senders to work with the old gauges unless you buy a bunch of electrical resisitors and such and try a bunch of options and spend alot of money. The 2000 S-10 sender needs a gauge that reads whatever ohms an S-10 gauge needs. Electrical oil and temp gauges are better and don't leak. We all want to use the old gauges so that we don't have one of those gauge clusters hanging down and to be more original. Install original looking gauges into the old dash cluster and that should satisfy.

updated mine in the 52 to Omega gauges. after 200 miles i like them. got mine from speedway.cost w/ shipping was $474. best part for me was the electric speedo. i ran for years without a speedo and it is nice to have it back. btw i run a ford 302 and c4 trans. in my gmc(yea,I KNOW), no problems with the hookup.

daren

A ford engine in a sacred GMC Truck? No firewall issues because the distributor is in the front? How do you sleep at night?

i sleep well thanx. the engine was priced right-free.the original was shot. it's ok i have a chevy in my plymouth.

daren

Warning! Off topic. You are cool. Even "The Most Interesting Man in The World" hasn't done that yet! I would do that too if it was free.

Lots of good options. Just what I was looking for. I wish I had the skills and equipment that some of you do. Nice work.

I too am/was a mechanical designer as I see you are. I know you have the common sense to figure things out. I found out that after I read up on something, ask the guys here, search the internet, I just dive in and do it. We all make mistakes and have to fix them, but it keeps us out of the bars. Not too many tools needed for many jobs. Just tinker and dinker. Basically the fun is in the doing and fixing the old trucks the way you want them and sit back and look at what you've done. It's not economically feasible to have all the work hired out for most of us. These old trucks are easy to work on and are forgiving with their straight forward design of all components. No electronics just electrics, no power accessories except if you add them, no fuel injection circuit, no MacPherson struts, rear wheel drive, No metric hardware and enough height that we can crawl under them. So dig in and you will develop the "skills". Everything you can ask about on here has several experienced guys who have done it and will help. Take the varied opinions/know-how and decide what to do from that.

I'm running a full set of '32 Chevy gauges and use the old Speedo too. I even have the original lamp bulbs in use too.
Normbc9

With what engine and fuel tank sender?