The Rodding Roundtable
Motorhead Message Central => Rodder's Roundtable => Topic started by: seadog on April 27, 2005, 02:32:20 PM
I will be going to the Knoxville NSRA show in a couple of weeks and plan to shop for gauges for my deuce project. With the many choices out there I'd welcome the opinions of folks on this board regarding what is good, bad and/or ugly about the various brands. I guess I have a bias towards SW gauges, simply because they are what I associate with hot rods, having grown up in the 50's when they were about all you saw. Are there better alternatives in terms of accuracy, reliability, warranty, ect.?
Lets hear your opinions.
Thanks.
I my opinion, all modern gauges are grossly over priced for what they are. I remember the old S / W's too, and other brands. If you like that look, I would search for older S/W's or Sun gauges or whatever. They are not hard to clean and repair if needed, and really look the part in the right car.
Yes.....the quality gauges are much better in accuracy, reliability and will take more shock and system electrical abuse.
I think VDO and Autometer have as good as product as anyone. Yes, you are going to hear anecdotal testimonials about this failure and that problem, but I have found that most gauge issues are "owner oriented" because of the electrical content of the understanding curve.
I am aware of both VDO and Autometers failure rates and they are lower than 90% of the other vendors we deal with.
Also, Classic Gauges are good and the up and comer is Dolphin gauges.
Even the old mechanical temp and oil pressure gauges where +/- 10% instruments/systems. Today....and this is a myth buster....the electronic ones are less than +/- 5%.....much better when applied correctly. And the electronic ones have much better components than just 10 years ago making them have MTBFs out of sight.
Are they worth the money? You decide??
I'm an Autometer fan. In running the dragster, they were the only company that would repair a gauge. Because of vibration and tire shake, before there was liquid filled gauges, they took care of me real well. I doubt that their repairs are cheap like they used to be, but theye were real good to work with. I use their stuff in all my projects with good success.
Quote from: "seadog"I will be going to the Knoxville NSRA show in a couple of weeks and plan to shop for gauges for my deuce project. With the many choices out there I'd welcome the opinions of folks on this board regarding what is good, bad and/or ugly about the various brands. I guess I have a bias towards SW gauges, simply because they are what I associate with hot rods, having grown up in the 50's when they were about all you saw. Are there better alternatives in terms of accuracy, reliability, warranty, ect.?
Lets hear your opinions.
Thanks.
Vdo has been good to me. I bought a set and I actually had 2 bad gauges and the replaced em both and they are still working as far as i know in my old 34. I put em in the 32 also. Try rodparst warehouse they had em cheapest when I bought mine.
Dave
I've used most of them, and they all worked fine. I have used SW, Dolphin, TPI, Classic, Vintage, Isspro, Autometer, Sun, Niehoff, and some inexpensive parts store gauges, with the Champ brand name on them.I have been using Dolphin gauges lately, and have had no problems with several sets. The oldest ones are about 6 years old now. They are also easy to deal with, they have helped me with a couple custom gauge sets.
Having torn aparts some gauges, most of them are using the same guts, they are identical inside. The exceptions are Autometer, SW, and VDO, they appear to have their own movements inside the gauges. I believe the Niehoff gauges are made by SW, outside of a satin finish bezel, they appear to be the same.
I have found the product AND the customer service of Classic,second to none..........
i use a lot of autometer, and i've never had any problem with them. i have also used a lot of vdo and as well, no problems. as for classic looks, they both rank high at the top with me. but just for plain cool-- i dont know the maker, but the face is roulete {sp.?} wheel face gauges.
I have had good luck with various brands. I recommend you buy a speedometer that is programable with a push button to correct for your gearing and tire size. Some brands require you to do some calculations and then flip some switches on the instrument to calibrate the unit. That method works fine but sometimes it is a problem get back under the dash to do it.
Quote from: "WZ JUNK"I have had good luck with various brands. I recommend you buy a speedometer that is programable with a push button to correct for your gearing and tire size. Some brands require you to do some calculations and then flip some switches on the instrument to calibrate the unit. That method works fine but sometimes it is a problem get back under the dash to do it.
i do agee.
I used the SW Wings gauges in both my 32 roadster and my 32 coupe and they work fine. The only problem I've noticed is the mechanical speedo bounces around often now after 25000+ miles in the roadster. I bought both sets from Southern Rods cuz theirs was the best price.
I use either VDO or Classic depending on the style of car I'm building.As Jim said in an earlier post....The customer service from Classic is second to none and VDO runs a close second.Another company that I have used is Faria...they are not well advertised but they build a lot of gauges for competetive racing applications,I'm told.They are very economically priced.Good Luck!
Quote from: "Topsterguy"The only problem I've noticed is the mechanical speedo bounces around often now after 25000+ miles in the roadster.
This may be the cable sticking rather than a problem with the speedo itself.
Quote from: "SimonSez"Quote from: "Topsterguy"The only problem I've noticed is the mechanical speedo bounces around often now after 25000+ miles in the roadster.
This may be the cable sticking rather than a problem with the speedo itself.
Yeah that's what I figured too. I'm going to just get some good old WD-40 in there pretty quick!
Quote from: "WZ JUNK"I have had good luck with various brands. I recommend you buy a speedometer that is programable with a push button to correct for your gearing and tire size. Some brands require you to do some calculations and then flip some switches on the instrument to calibrate the unit. That method works fine but sometimes it is a problem get back under the dash to do it.
I asked about that advantage when I bought my Dolpin gages, and the advantage to the flip switch type is that if you loose power to the car change battery the gages are still set unlike the push button that need reprogramming for any power lose. Ed ke6bnl
Quote from: "seadog"I will be going to the Knoxville NSRA show in a couple of weeks and plan to shop for gauges for my deuce project. With the many choices out there I'd welcome the opinions of folks on this board regarding what is good, bad and/or ugly about the various brands. I guess I have a bias towards SW gauges, simply because they are what I associate with hot rods, having grown up in the 50's when they were about all you saw. Are there better alternatives in terms of accuracy, reliability, warranty, ect.?
Lets hear your opinions.
Thanks.
I have Dolphins in my vert ,good company, had "trouble with oil press guage wrote to them, sent me new guage and sending unit also returned old guage. turned out I had tired oil pump. Only prob is at night when temp drops quickly,( with top down) guages steam up from inside and hard to read. once lenz warms up they clear up. I also have electronic speedo works great, beats trying to figure out tranny tooth combo.
QuoteOnly prob is at night when temp drops quickly,( with top down) guages steam up from inside and hard to read. once lenz warms up they clear up.
I've had the same problem with SW, and VDO guages, sometimes only one in a set. My theory is dust on the inside of the lens, but I have no way to prove it.
Forgot what brand they were but when I went to install them (the customer already had them) I noticed a very disturbing mechanical deficiency in the design.
The plastic cup that fits over the back is installed before the wires. Once the cup is in place, the wires are attached and the whole shebang is tightened up. The problem is the plastic. It's not strong enough and the terminals tend to loosen up as the plastic gives way. .....and the manufacturer doesn't supply enough nuts to double-nut the terminals. Since they're an odd size thread, you're stuck with instruments that intermittently stop working when the wires jiggle on the back.
As for VDO, those push-on connectors are an absolute nightmare. The wires all stick out straight from the back of the instrument and the back side of the dash winds up looking like a rat's nest. Give me the old nut on a stud instrument, not a push on terminal spiked hairdo.
Quote from: "Inprimer"Quote from: "seadog"I will be going to the Knoxville NSRA show in a couple of weeks and plan to shop for gauges for my deuce project. With the many choices out there I'd welcome the opinions of folks on this board regarding what is good, bad and/or ugly about the various brands. I guess I have a bias towards SW gauges, simply because they are what I associate with hot rods, having grown up in the 50's when they were about all you saw. Are there better alternatives in terms of accuracy, reliability, warranty, ect.?
Lets hear your opinions.
Thanks.
I have Dolphins in my vert ,good company, had "trouble with oil press guage wrote to them, sent me new guage and sending unit also returned old guage. turned out I had tired oil pump. Only prob is at night when temp drops quickly,( with top down) guages steam up from inside and hard to read. once lenz warms up they clear up. I also have electronic speedo works great, beats trying to figure out tranny tooth combo.
I haven't installed my dolphin guages yet but herd that they may have this problem and I called the supplier of the guages and he was honest and said that this does occure and that it clears up soon after warming up I like the honesty thought instead of a bunch of mumble gumble. Ed ke6bnl
VDO have been reliable around here ...also there are some Dakota Digital in the area too. As previously posted, service is the key because if you do much you'll have a problem sooner or later. Cal :wink:
I remember what the brand was. Daytona.
Went over to a body shop last night to finish a car I'd started about 15 months ago (it's painted now and ready for the finishing touches) and he had the dash out.
ALL of the nuts on the back of the gauges were loose. The plastic had sagged and the connections were all flopping around.......and he hasn't even started driving the car yet.