Hi, friends. I just put in a NOS 6 volt temp gauge in my 54. The old one was shot acting. The car has been converted to 12 v. I have a 12 v sender in the car and have a volt reducer installed at the gauge to drop volts to 6. The new gauge is acting as it should. Resting on the HOT side and then going down to COLD and then moving from there. My question is why is the the needle going nearly 3/4 of the way to hot but stopping right at the end of the white line that runs horizontal? It was a cool day yesterday here in Atlanta. Around 64 degrees. I drove the car for about 20 miles and the needle got to the end of that white line and stopped there. Should the needle be riding closer to middle or even lower? I think my thermostat is a 180 but can't be 100 percent sure. Any tips or ideas would be great. I do have a brand new 6 volt temp gauge just in case I needed to switch out with the older 12 volt to experiment. I have a pic attached of where the gauge needle went up to while driving.
What type of voltage reducer are you using? Runtz voltage reducer is the best I have used for gauges. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
The other thought I had was the change from 6v Pos. ground to 12v Neg. ground may have affected the gauge...just throwing out ideas. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
thanks for the reply, boss20. Im not really sure I follow your thinking. Im no mechanic to be sure. Just trying to get the gauge working correctly. As I said its acting correct until it starts to ride up on the horizontal white line. I don't think the gauge should be riding at almost 3/4 of the way to hot. I will try to figure it out.
I think I'd try one of these before using an aftermarket solution. d1az-10804-a. That's the ford PN for the instrument panel voltage regulator used in hte 60's-70s. 6v gauges, 12v chassis. Available from other makers too, but also intended for the purpose. I replaced a lot of these to fix gauge reading complaints back in the day. Cheap enough to try. Also, never hurts to add to our toolbox, so get a cheap laser Thermometer to check actual temp against the gauge reading.
Do you have any idea at all what your actual motor temp is? Before I went all Nutz about where the needle is resting in the gauge I'd want to know what my actual running temp. is. The sender don't know 6-V from 12-V. They are just a thermo resister going to Ground. The dash instrument is all that's voltage sensitive, they don't even know what direction it's coming from.
Thanks. I will hit it with a temp gun to see. I just find it strange that the needle went all the way to the right most edge of the white horizontal line and then stayed there never really went any higher. So no need to xperiment with putting the new 6 volt sender in to see what happens?
I'll say this again. Pair your stock in dash Gauge with it's correct matching stock to the gauge sending unit. They have no idea what kind of Motor you have in your car and will only report the Water Temp of the Motor they are connected to. They don't care what it is. The Runtz will work just fine in your application providing you have it connected correctly. Let's say your motor runs 190* at full operating temp and the gauge needle is on the far right of the long white mark. Well, that's 190* on that gauge. Now let's say the needle slides on over the the far right white dot. Your getting hot but if your not loosing water I still wouldn't freek out but I sure would take my lazer temp unit and see exactly just how hot it is. Now you'll know the temp gauge numbers for your in dash gauge.
What Pist-n-Broke said. The sender and gauge must match each other, then use a runtz voltage reducer on the power side to the gauge.
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