Aux auto gauges?

[markkw]

I stopped by the auto parts stores and nearly had a stroke from sticker-shock! The rinky dink crappy auxillary oil & temp gauges have gone from cheap to insane prices considering they really weren't worth the "cheap" price to begin with!

So here's the deal, I'm looking for not the best but decent aux gauges to put on my vintage minivan. The oil pressure sending unit went out last week, coolant temp this week and I'm no fan of the idiot lights and electronic gauges anyway. Any ideas on where I can get these for a more "reasonable" price?

[franz]

I can set you up with some marine grade voltmeters fairly cheap.

Last bunch of gauges I bought came from Surplus Center. MiniMagLite works fine for all the times I need to look at the sumbeach while driving at night.

[markkw]

Franz,

I have a temp gauge like that in my little service truck, gauge works great, just can't find lamp to fit the socket.

Thanks for the offer but right now I'm looking for temp & oil press.

[tech4]

Mark, I have a mechanical oil gage that I had in a Ranger pickup several or more years ago when having some oil pressure problems.. I will look in my tool box tomorrow. Send me your mailing address in email and I will send it to you and you can reimburse me for the mailing charge.

[markkw]

T4

Thanks, I'll probably take you up on that offer but I'm going to pick your brain a bit first ... if you don't want to reply in the public forum, email me.

These Dodge minivans use the computer module located in the air intake to control the alternator output according to load I believe by varying the resistance to ground on the control wire. If such is the case, could one not remove the computer control and put a fixed resistor to limit the voltage independent of load. Reason I ask is because portions of the body module computer crapped a couple times before I found the voltage running upwards of 16vdc. After changing the air intake module the voltage now holds at 14.5vdc which is still a little too high. Before I go replacing the modules again, I'd like to prevent the overvoltage issue from happening again.

[tech4]

Mark, I sent you an email
T4