Electronic or mechanical gauges?

What do you guys prefer of the two? I'm going to order some gauges (Water temp., Oil Press., and Voltmeter) for the '63 in a bit and just want to hear from you guys what you prefer.
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Nothing but mechanical for me. Electrics are too much hassle, (wiring/hiding wiring, etc, etc).
Mechanicals, no worries. It either works, or it doesn't.
My .002 [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_wink.gif[/img]
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Mechanical only! Electric's are no more accurate than an idiot light.

Certain gauges I have to say should be mechanical, like oil press. and water temps. but to make the install easy electrics are the way to go on other gauges.

Ex. on the granada I'm using an electric trans temp. gauge and fuel pressure gauge. I also have an electric nitrous pressure gauge mounted but it isn't operational at the moment. It's easier to run small wiring than to have a probe and steel braided lines running through your firewall.

I'm not a big fan of having to mount gauges outside the vehicle, to me mounting them inside looks cleaner.

AFA accuracy, my electric f/pressure gauge reads exactly the same as the mechanical gauge I have mounted on the rail going into the carb so accuracy with the newer electric gauges isn't an issue. I only wish they weren't as expensive as what they are.

For newer model cars there isn't really any place to hook up mechanical probes so electrics make it a little easier, just make sure you use proper gauge wiring, good connectors and proper grounds and electric gauges will work just fine.

Tony


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Mechanical, without a doubt! My stock electric water temp. always ran around a quarter of the way, until one day it started to run half way. I figured no big deal. I then decided to get a mech. water temp. gauge by Autometer so I could hav a more accurate reading. Come to find out that half way on my stock gauge was about 230 degrees. Now all of my gauges are mech. with the obvious exception of my voltmeter. Mech. is the best!![img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_tup.gif[/img] LOL
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On 2003-11-14 21:55, fordfreak65 wrote:
Mechanical, without a doubt! My stock electric water temp. always ran around a quarter of the way, until one day it started to run half way. I figured no big deal. I then decided to get a mech. water temp. gauge by Autometer so I could hav a more accurate reading. Come to find out that half way on my stock gauge was about 230 degrees. Now all of my gauges are mech. with the obvious exception of my voltmeter. Mech. is the best!![img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_tup.gif[/img] LOL

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and if you hooked up an autometer electric water temp gauge would it not also read 230F just like your mechanical gauge? think about it.
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and if you hooked up an autometer electric water temp gauge would it not also read 230F just like your mechanical gauge? think about it.

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Maybe...maybe not. The amount of resistance between the sender and the intake can affect the reading on the gauge. If you use any kind of sealer, like teflon tape or liquid sealant, resistance changes which means the gauge reading changes. As you said, think about it.

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Maybe...maybe not. The amount of resistance between the sender and the intake can affect the reading on the gauge. If you use any kind of sealer, like teflon tape or liquid sealant, resistance changes which means the gauge reading changes. As you said, think about it.
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The way I look at it, the threads on the sender isn't part of the sending unit, the actual part that is doing the measuring. Even if sealant or tape does affect the resistance of the unit how much is it really affecting it, a couple of degrees or half to 1 psi? Is it really worth worrying about?

The only way I could see sealant affecting a reading drastically is if you gooped up the sender too much when you install it and some of the sealant is on the actual sending unit part of the sender, then you'll have a problem with it reading accurately. Think about that.

Tony


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I think it doesn't matter whether the gauges are mechanical or electrical, as long as they're good quality and calibrated. I see both being used in other applications, but it seems like the majority of the better systems use an electrical readout.

Electrical for my application.

Both SW and Autometer claim no disparity in accuracy or dependability. Mostly it's a "convenience" decision.

Here's the SW take:

http://www.sw-performance.com/Tech/0tsQAEvM.html
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