Gauges are seriously important to "gauge" the conditions of the engine during running and driving. I had already decided a while back that i wanted to get the "Smiths Cobra" electric gauges. I know allot of people say these are not as accurate as the wet line gauges, and there might be an element of truth to that. However the electric will give a constant reading, and if anything starts to miss behave from normal running conditions, then the gauge will display that... i hope!! Most important gauge of all IMO is the oil pressure gauge and light. So as long as i have a light which comes on at the correct time before any serious damage can be done then that's fine for me. My light should illuminate at 18psi or lower, so that is a sufficient safety net. keep in mind that on your normally everyday road car, the oil light will come on at 5psi or lower..... by that point the damage has been done.
With the picture here i think i will have to get used to looking at the fuel gauge like this!!! however petrol is currently at 128.9 lt and diesel 133.9lt best its been for months. It cost me just under £100 to fill my Range Rover and i haven't done that since i got it in Feb 2011
I have dropped a bollox and gone with an ammeter, this is being rectified to a voltmeter.
When i ordered the gauges i was always been under the impression that the ammeter will give a far better reading of the charging circuit/alternator. In fact the ammeter is a little out of date for most cars now as it will only give me a reading of how much charge the alternator is producing. Now if i had a dynamo not an alternator that would be fine, but when was the last time you saw a dynamo on a car?? well for me that was today to be fair as i have an old Rolls Royce with one, but also wiring the ammeter into the cobra loom would be stupid it would need a 50amp+ gauge wire from alternator to battery. This would mean routing the cable behind the dashboard which is allot of amps to have through the gauge on the dash, also if it failed in anyway poor terminal connection,break in the wire, connector comes loose etc... then my battery would not charge and risk of short circuit from the 50amps+ behind the dash.
Of course i can no longer just get on with a job on my own. My little mate is always on hand to touch things hes not supposed to, or even run away with bits I'm using, then throw a hissy fit when i claim them back.
Cheers little mate!!
So after i had everything marked out and was happy, time to man up and get cutting the dash holes. I had ordered a hole cutter on line (another cheep tool lesson learnt) and when it turned up it was huge. I wanted an adjustable hole cutter so i could do the 52mm gauges and the larger102mm and the one i got could cut holes up to 300mm wide, picture that spinning round in the drill. The cutter i received would best be suited to a pillar drill.....but i don't have a pillar drill, just my old faithful handheld black and decker. Either way the theory was cut stupidly undersized and open up slowly with the dremmel..... good theory, as all went very well and the gauges were mounted in no time. Even my neighbours knew it was a fairly easy straightforward job, as i got comments saying "i saw the garage door open, and couldn't here any swearing???"
The ammeter is in here simply to fill the hole but it has now been returned awaiting the replacement voltmeter. Lots of comments on the "Go-Baby-Go" button, little cliche but i love it!!
I have started to wire up all the gauges, but you will have to wait for an update on that as i want to spend some time tidying up all the wires and making it look neat and tidy, also awaiting the voltmeter to allow me to finish the dash loom wiring. This is one of those jobs where if i spend the time planning and prepping all the terminals and checking the feeds, it should all light up first time with no issues and faults to find and rectify......fingers crossed.
It wasn't cheep from AK and not that I'm saying anything negative about it, but i do feel that this could be a little better for the money i paid. Not the quality but certainly the support. Although each leg of the loom is identified from AK eg Leg1,Leg 2 etc... i would have though that each individual wire would have been identified, or a key supplied eg, red/blue side light feed, red/yellow main beam feed etc...
I was left scratching my head and after a cry for help (it was the weekend so AK were closed) i spent a full day on the phone to Paul, who i seriously owe a drink to.
Paul is also building an AK and is nearing the IVA test and (lucky for me) has done his wiring already, and noted what/how he did it. Paul went through every leg of the loom and identified every wire and its use with me over the phone. This was a massive help and so i was able to get the loom offered into position and getting ready to make some connections. I am having to make some changes to the wiring as i have decided to use a oil temp gauge also, which is not accounted for in the AK loom. But should be easy enough to wire up.
The picture here has had some comments of my mates saying "is that a stupidly wide car or a stupidly narrow garage?" the answer to that being both!!! i must be crazy doing all this in a single garage.
Some more updates soon as when i have the loom completed i will be able to sit in, start up, move the car forward/back and run the engine up to temp. This will be exciting for me!!!
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