Miles71

Equus Gauge Set:


I recently installed a set of Equus Gauges in my 71 Cutlass. I will pass on some of my tips.
Overall it was a very easy install. I added a triple mount with a Volt-Meter, Oil Pressure (electric) and Water Temperature (electric). The Oil and Water gauges come in two styles, Mechanical with a Hose attachment or Electrical with just wires. I chose the wire option because I did not want to take a chance on having an Oil hose pop under my dash.
An additional benefit to using the Electric version of these gauges, it that I can unplug them during a car show and hide the meters.


Volt Meter:
The easiest meter to install. You have two options here; wire the voltage sensor/power wire to the accessory terminal on the fuse panel or some other ignition switch source. The down side is the fuse panel will read a lower voltage than your actual car battery.
I chose to use two wires. The first (fused) wire is to power the back light from an Ignition source. The second (fused) wire goes to the Horn relay. Now I get a more realistic voltage on the meter. The volt meter will be running all of time. Fortunatly it only draws a small amount of power, similar to your Cutlass clock. The back light of course will turn off with the Ignition key.

Oil Gauge (electric):
I had to buy a few extra fittings to make this gauge fit on my rocket 350. I purchased a 3” threaded extension and a female/female coupler and some Teflon tape. I also used the included short extension tube as part of the installation. Each of the 4 sets of threads I applied 1 layer of Teflon tape. Do not worry about the thin (1 layer of tape) Teflon tape messing up the required “Ground” needed for the electrical connection.
One of the neat things I like about the Electric Oil sensor is the Dual terminals. The Female spade terminal provides the analog signal to the new Gauge. The male spade terminal will send and ON/OFF signal to your existing Oil light. This sensor will run both the new Gauge and your existing Oil light.
You will need to make a short 3” male to male 1 / 4 inch spade to spade jumper cable to connect your existing Oil light cable (Buy a few extra spade connector male and female).

Water Temperature Gauge:
This too was easy to install. All I had to do was borrow some tools from my neighbors. I did not have wrenches that big. I removed the old water sensor and cleaned the intake manifold threads. Then I installed 1 layer of Teflon tape on the two sets of threads (Nut body and the senor have separate threads).
The Water Temperate gauges does not support the dashboard temperature light (Note to Equus, please make a new sensor that supports both connections like you did with the Oil sensor).

Wires:
I ran all of the wires through an existing grommet just below the brake reservoir.
If you are going to install both the Oil and Water sensors, you will need to install the Water sensor first and then the Oil sender unit. It just make is easier in that order.

Images: The large gray Sensor is the Oil Sending unit that supports both the Gauge and Dashboard oil light. If you look close you can see the extension tubes required to raise the Oil sensor high enough to clear the Intake manifold. Extension parts purchased at Lowes.

Notes: You will need to remove approximately 1 gallon of radiator fluid before removing the Temperature Sensor and replace when properly installed. (thanks 72OldsRocketeMan)

enjoy Miles

RetroRanger

Looks good Miles, i have the same guages in my 72. I found the lights to be very bright, I swapped out the bulbs for the lowest wattage (3w?) dash bulb light when I did all my dash lights and i find them to still be to bright !!!!

Where did you mount them ?

Mine are under the dash to the right of the steering column (no pic handy)

Miles71

The Equus gauges come with 3 rubbers (blue, red and green) you can put over the bulbs for color and to make them dimmer. The clear was too bright. The green seems ok. I may stuff in a resistor later to dim the bulbs a bit or switch to a lower wattage too. I need a few more miles on them to decide the brightness.

The 3-slot bracket is under the dash almost centered. I used an existing screw for the AC ductwork to hold the gauge bracket in place. I did not drill any new holes.

I forgot to mention the cost. Three Meters, Bracket, Extra fittings, plus extra spade lugs and wire, all under $180. It’s not as nice as a real rally pack, but it’s a lot more affordable and it was fun to install.

I was amazed to discover my oil pressure is over 50 psi at 1800 rpm with a hot motor.
I also found out I had a loose sensor wire on my alternator that was intermittently causing my charging voltage to hit 17.5 volts. I have since cleaned all connections associated with the Alternator and external voltage regulator and have not seen any abnormal charging issues since.
So the meters did what I wanted them to do.

ddd777

Might you know of another gauge set that will support both connections?

I am going to do this upgrade in the spring and want to retain the original light on the dash as well.

.

ddd777

Where did you find the Oil Sending unit that supports both the Gauge and Dashboard oil light?

Did it come with the gauge kit?

Miles71

Yes, the oil sender contained two contacts and it came with the kit.
Oil supported both the warning light and a preassure meter.

The Temp sending only has the meter contact and will not run the warning light (darn, i wish it did both).

ddd777

Do you think it might work to "T" the temperature sender hole and put one of each kind of sender in it?

Using the technique this person did for the oil pressure sender:
https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...tml#post172163

Or would that render both of them ineffective?
.

Lady72nRob71

Nice writeup. I am surprised that these affordable gauges are even still available.
I bought a triple set back in 1990 for my Ford and only had to replace the oil line once when i broke it during an oil change. Best 20 bucks I ever spent! I hate idiot lights...

m371961

Cool that the oil sender supports guage and lights. For the temp sender, if you do not have a unused coolant port in your manifold you have to use a tee. My 65 had no extra port and I teed it at the heater hose port.
Murphy switchguages have a adjustable contact built into the guages for low oil and high temp. and a light is easily wired to it. They have made guages for decades for unattended industrial engines, allowing auto shutdown for overtemp or loss of oil pressure. outstanding quality. I did not use those on my car as I wanted mini guages and wanted my cold light to work. I have used them on my military 4x and other apps.

Miles71

I tried to use two temperature sensors on a T-Fitting and it did not work!
The problem was that Air would fill the inside of the T-Fitting.

Neither of the two sensors would touch water / coolant. As a result, when driving with the engine running at 180F (read with a hand held thermal sensor aimed at the thermostat housing), I would read on the Gauge 150F.

In short, the T-Fitting caused the meter to read 30 degrees lower than the actual engine temperate.
Do not use a T-Fitting for Water temperature.

Attached is a picture of the T-Fitting failure. There were no leaks. The sensors just did not touch water and only read the temperature of the brass fittings.

ddd777

Thanks Miles71
That is what I was afraid of - and why I turned to this community - lots of knowledgeable folks who have tried things out and are willing to share.

I guess I will go with a similar setup to what you did and train myself to look at the gauges from time-to-time, instead of relying on the "idiot lights".

kitfoxdave

I used the small sunpro set... yeah the cheapies... I had an open hole (no clock in the dash) I made a triple cluster that just fit into the blank clock hole filler. looks nice when finished to match the rest of the dash... (oil line type not electric...)

m371961

Once I bleed the Tee, the guage works fine, at least for now, but like I said it is in a different spot then yours. I also used a close nipple and tee for the 2 OP senders.

joepenoso

I read with interest your triple guage install. What model Equus triple gauge did you use where there was electrical and mechanical connections for the instruments?
I looked up Equus and could find only mechanical triple guages
Thanks
joepenoso

ddd777

I did not purchase them as a set.

I Purchased these 4 items separately and combined them in the car:





So far so good, but will report if I have any difficulties....

72OldsRocketMan

I'm bumping this thread up. I'm using the very useful info here to work on an install on my 72 Cutlass also with a 350.

I removed the old sensor today from the intake manifold and I immediately had some coolant leakage come out. It didn't seem to want to stop so I put the sensor back in.

My reservoir tank showed coolant up to the full hot level, even though the engine was cold. I decided to siphon some out. Now the level is in between the full hot line and the add line on a cold engine.

Should this eliminate coolant coming out the intake while trying to get the new sensor in or should I just be prepared for this. Will the leaking stop soon enough? I didn't want to wait there a while to find out. Also, any suggestions on an adapter for this? I'm not sure if the sensor is original or not. It has a wire that is removable on the top of what appears to be some type of plastic housing on top of the threaded part.

Lady72nRob71

You should siphon out about a gallon of coolant or so. The heater hoses and core and upper radiator holds coolant above the height of the sensor, so yes it will leak quite a bit.
Siphon it to a clean bottle and pour it back in when done. Run the engine afterwards to burp it and make sure all that you took out makes it back in.

72OldsRocketMan

Thank you so much for pointing that out. Of coarse that's the problem, it just didn't cross my mind at all. I appreciate you pointing that out. Should make the job much easier!