Mods you regret

[XR7-4.6]

The thing about gauges is that you often don't need them until something isn't right. Otherwise, I kind of don't want them there until I do, but when I do, there's about a half-dozen different gauges I want visibility of, not just 2-3.

In other words, when the time comes, I think I'll go with AeroForce gauges so I don't run out of physical real estate in the stock '97 ashtray location. Two single-property gauges won't cut it, and additional steering column and/or dual A-pillar mounts don't look great to me either.

I treated them largely as a tool. At the time I wanted to see the actual oil pressure since I had just installed a new pump when I put the cams in, water temp was more of a band aid fix since the factory one has been really erratic. Now that they’ve served their purpose I'm ready to put them away like I would a wrench.

I’m currently pondering whether or not the autometer sending units would work with the stock cluster gauges. I could make an extension harness off the cluster to run to the harness I made for the autometers and basically plug/unplug if I felt the need to stick say the oil pressure gauge back in on the fly

 

[Grog6]

Access the wires for the gages you want to use.
Make a voltage source from a 9v battery, and a 1k potentiometer. + and - across the end terminals, the middle terminal varies from 0-9v. Write down how much voltage
it takes to read what you want. Then map the sender to the gage with resistors.
It gets complicated if you need gain,lol. Voltage divider formula is what you use, to make the sender voltage match what you want.

I've considered adding a small dash mounted monitor to my datalogging pc, for gages; there are analog inputs on the xcal2. I use 1 for my wideband.

 

[XR7-4.6]

Access the wires for the gages you want to use.
Make a voltage source from a 9v battery, and a 1k potentiometer. + and - across the end terminals, the middle terminal varies from 0-9v. Write down how much voltage
it takes to read what you want. Then map the sender to the gage with resistors.
It gets complicated if you need gain,lol. Voltage divider formula is what you use, to make the sender voltage match what you want.

I've considered adding a small dash mounted monitor to my datalogging pc, for gages; there are analog inputs on the xcal2. I use 1 for my wideband.

I could do that, or just send it and be satisfied if they point within anywhere in the \___NORM___/ range lol

 

[Grog6]

The prob you run into is "current fed vs voltage fed. Easy ex. the oil pressure ga. The switch connects a 20 ohm resistor to the meter, with a voltage on the other terminal. The variation seen in the gage is a variation in the reference. The oil pressure switch just closes.
Aftermarket gages have better circuitry.
The gas gage reads a variable voltage. Figuring out what the gage wants is the hard part.
I've known engineers who spent a lot of cash to measure something that a simple green or red led would have worked. Dude measured the outer bearing race of a machine we built. Fully instrumented, it provided great info showing how it overheated, melted, and dropped 1000 lbs of delicate detectors on the floor, at speed, lol.
A red led with a" turn me off!" label would have been more valuable than "675.2 degrees C."
I'd go for it. If something is too high, adding an inline resistor, <500 ohms or so, should drop it.

 

[XR7-4.6]

The prob you run into is "current fed vs voltage fed. Easy ex. the oil pressure ga. The switch connects a 20 ohm resistor to the meter, with a voltage on the other terminal. The variation seen in the gage is a variation in the reference. The oil pressure switch just closes.
Aftermarket gages have better circuitry.
The gas gage reads a variable voltage. Figuring out what the gage wants is the hard part.
I've known engineers who spent a lot of cash to measure something that a simple green or red led would have worked. Dude measured the outer bearing race of a machine we built. Fully instrumented, it provided great info showing how it overheated, melted, and dropped 1000 lbs of delicate detectors on the floor, at speed, lol.
A red led with a" turn me off!" label would have been more valuable than "675.2 degrees C."
I'd go for it. If something is too high, adding an inline resistor, <500 ohms or so, should drop it.

I understand how they work, but there’s a chance the senders are close enough in their resistance ranges where it’s worth just sending(no pun intended) them. Worse case scenario they either peg the gauges or read super low. Based on my casual observations though there’s not much different internally bwtween the gauge cores, autometer electric gauges “park” to zero when they’re depowered where the OEM ones stay where they last read, but they fundamentally operate the same

 

[Grog6]

Car gages are designed to last, and be cheap, so no return spring. They are useless for seeing a gradual drop. You'll hit a bump, and then it drops. Something I always wanted to do is make a schematic of the electronics on the cluster, make it adjustable, and put real gages in the og cluster. probably have to use better senders in some spots.
In my cubby area, I'm putting a usb port, a wideband, and an ammeter for the batt. (+-100A)

As I was getting ready to post this, it occurs to me that I have an Infocenter, sitting, waiting to be installed.
it has a vfd that shows multiple things, including a Fuel pressure sensor at the rail.
It's all pic based. It would be really cool to get Scott to make another batch, but the eec connectors were $1500. Each unit. They sold for $600. I bought it 3rd hand for 200.