Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

Working on Guages

Working on the Instruments

I worked on my instrument panel on the Studebaker and got the gauges to working. It was a bit of a challenge. Keep in mind that what I have done is take an old truck body and put it on the chassis of a later model truck. In the process none of the instrumentation from the S-10 dashboard carried over. If I wanted to know how the engine was operating I had to install some aftermarket gauges.

I bought an inexpensive set. The temperature gauge had a long flexible metal tube that ran from the engine port, through the firewall and into the display fixture I crafted on the dashboard from sheet metal. This is a mechanical gauge and works like a thermometer


The volt meter required that I go into the plug that once connected the S-10 wiring with the instrument module. This plug had over forty wires in the connector, now hanging under the dash. Since that Chevy module would not look right in an old truck it had to be discarded and the wires for the essential functions had to be identified. For the voltmeter I needed a wire that had switched power. This means a wire that becomes hot when the ignition is turned on. The first active position on an ignition switch turns on power to the accessories you need, even if the engine is not running. This is called switched power. In order to find a candidate wire you use a test light which is a thin steel probe with a bulb inside that lights up when the tip touches a hot lead. A black wire with an alligator clip tails out of the test light and is connected by the clip to a good ground. When you probe the end of a wire and it activates the test light you are on the right track… not there but on the right track.

The problem remains to determine if this is switched power or continuous power… like it was once connected to a clock. If it is hot all the time it is not switched power. To find out you turn off the ignition and if it still lights it is not switched power. Anyway I found and connected a switched wire I located, to the positive terminal on the gauge and a ground wire to the negative and the volt meter was installed.

The last of the three gauges was the oil pressure gauge. I had trouble finding it's engine port and finally one of the mechanics at Pfeiffer’s showed me where it was . Behind the left front wheel by the oil filter. It was an electrical gauge and my aftermarket was mechanical. It was sort of like the temperature gauge and had a long thin plastic capillary tube that went from the engine port to the dash fixture.

When I started the truck the gauges told me information that most modern cars and trucks no longer show. Today there are lights that come on when the parameters of a warning light are exceeded. The light tells the operator there is a problem that needs to be addressed, but doesn’t show the extent of the problem. This is what the gauges showed.

Temperature: The engine was running at a constant 190 degrees. It hasn‘t fluctuated much. When the engine is started it gradually warms until it reaches this operating temperature which is about normal in my experience.

Voltmeter: When the ignition was in the accessory position the meter showed 12 volts. It would be better if it was 13 volts. It could be the gauge is not that precise or the battery could be a little run down or there could be resistance in the circuit. When the engine cranked it increased to 14 volts which is good. That means the charging system is working.

Oil Pressure: When I cranked the engine cold the oil pressure showed 60 lbs. That is very good. The engine has about a hundred fifty thousand miles on it. Obviously it has some wear. As the engine heated up the oil pressure began to drop and once warmed up, settled at about 40 lbs. I had the valves reground when the chassis was separated from the original S-10 body. I probably should have had the rings done at the same time and there was some blow back as the refurbished valves settled in. When the engine lugs the pressure drops to about 35 lbs. There is clearly some wear, certainly in the piston rings and possibly in the main bearings. What the heck … It runs sweet and should provide good service for another 100K miles. If it drops to below 10 lbs at idle that indicates that the engine has about come to the end of it's service life. I have a ways to go before that happens.

The last of the “gauges” were the turn signal lights on the dash. The turn signal lever is worn and sometimes does not click off when the turn is completed. Thus I need an indication on the dash when this function is occurring and completed. This requires intermittent power and I had to locate the appropriate wires in the cluster that performed this function. In other words I had to find the two wires that made the test light flash on and off. Eventually I found them and wired them to the apporpriate blinker. I did this placing the ignition in the accessory position and the lever in the left and right positions until I located the right wires. I connected the leads to some large green LED like lights and installed them in the cluster unit. Since I am a bit of a novice at electrical work this took me the better part of a day but the results were worth it. There is peace of mind knowing that essential automotive functions are working as intended and the turn signals work.