Different kind of vacuum gauge

[rideblue00]

I decided since i put in a new Sun retro tach in, that i wanted to find another kind of gauge to put in the other side. I did a search to find a new clock but cant seem to find one that is 3" diameter. Most are 2 1/16". So i was just surfing ebay for "vintage gauge". And found lots of stuff. Came across something called "Motor Minder" by Stewart Warner. They were going for a premium. So i just kept searching. And found this one. Made by Rite Autotronics Corp. Called "Motor Monitor". Its a little smaller, so i turned up an aluminum ring on my lathe. I made it a little big to make sure it fit the hole so no green came through from inside. I mounted it on the stock bracket inside the cluster. I made sure to test it on my other truck to make sure it works. Once i install the cluster, i will have to run some kind of line to the intake manifold vacuum fitting. The only thing that was tricky, was opening the hole on the aluminum black overlay sheet.

[Jerry Jones]

That is slick, nice job.

[padresag]

here is one that I pulled from a 62 gmc along with a fuel pressure regulator and filter. the vacuum guage is "motor guide"(looks like it came out in 64). 2 5/8" face

By rondavid at 2012-03-03
ron

[markeb01]

Wow! I like what you've done. That looks very cool. I ran an NOS Sun vacuum gauge for a while, but it read a few pounds low, had a few spots on the inside of the glass, and none of the gauge rebuilders would touch a vaccum gauge. I actually like yours better. Mounted inside the panel it looks both appropriate and unique.

[HEI451]

Those are simply a real vacuum gauge that are marked differently. The one in the first picture above, also has a fuel pressure scale as well (the numbers below the needle center pivot), so, done right, you can measure both vacuum, AND fuel pressure. Of course there is N O 'done right' for any type of fuel into the driver/passenger area.

[rideblue00]

Yea, i was wondering about the fuel pressure part of that. Its only designed for handheld use. I was just going to hook up vacuum anyway.

[Corts60]

Nice! I also run a motor minder in my '60:

[padresag]

funny , the one that I have goes anti-clockwise. the others all go clockwise
ron

[MusicMan70]

I'm sure it's no reflection on you Ron

I believe this is also a Motor Minder...

[rideblue00]

Ha, and here i thought i came up with something new. lol

[chevyrestoguy]

I'm a huge fan of vacuum gauges. They are a great engine tuning tool, and also a great tool for modifying your driving style to achieve maximum fuel mileage. I have a few Motor Minders in my parts stash. Whenever you go to the wrecking yard, ALWAYS look inside the junked motor homes, and chances are you can find one in there. Back in the 70s and 80s, motor home owners were desperate to get as much fuel mileage as they could, and having a vacuum gauge was one thing that definitely helped.

I love the look of the factory vacuum gauge but didn't want to spend the big bucks for one. With a little research, I utilized all factory GM pieces and made my own for around $35. I posted it on my Project '64 Cheapskate build thread (post #65). Check it out:

Originally Posted by chevyrestoguy

Well, a week or so ago I added some pictures showing the dash all cleaned up, along with the unfinished gauge cluster. In the left corner of the cluster, I had temporarily mounted a vacuum gauge from a '66 Oldsmobile 442, and promised that I would post up more shots when I had the vacuum gauge finished. Here's a step-by-step pictorial showing what I did:

I love the look of the gauge clusters when they're fully optioned with the tach and vacuum gauges, but finding those gauges can be an expensive endeavor. As the title of the thread proudly proclaims, I'm building this truck on the cheap, so I had to put my thinking cap on to figure how I can duplicate this look without throwing down a lot of dough. I started going on ebay and looking at all the GM vacuum gauges, and the prices were all over the board. The Chevy truck gauge was seemingly impossible to find, and the car gauges were pretty spendy. The beauty of GM stuff is that a lot of it will interchange, and I was taking a gamble on whether it would all fit. On ebay, I started watching one gauge in particular, one from a '66 Olds 442. It was thrashed, and it seemed like nobody was interested. The seller proclaimed that it worked, and that was good enough for me, so I placed a bid with 20 seconds left in the auction, and got it for $28, which is a steal. The housing was nicked up, the chrome was flaking, somebody had put a prisma decal on it, the clear bezel was cracked, but I didn't care because I wasn't going to use any of that stuff. Here it is. Trust me, it looks nicer than it really is:


Here it is all disassembled, pretty simple:


I took the gauge itself and held it up to the truck's cluster and the mounting holes were identical to the ones in the truck's gauge cluster (gotta love GM!) and I bolted it in to see if it would work. It was about 1/2" too high and didn't look right. Plus the font wasn't identical and wasn't the sea-green color of the rest of the gauges:


So I started researching what the factory gauge looked like, and lo and behold, I discovered that the faceplate of the vacuum gauge was exactly the same shape and size as the truck's block-off plate. Now I was on to something. If I could use the block-off plate as the gauge face, then a huge part of the puzzle could be solved.


The block-off has two tiny rivets that secure it to a sheetmetal tab that bolts itself to the mounting plate. I made some measurements on the center-to-center spacing of those rivets and compared it to the tiny bolts that secured the faceplate on the Olds vacuum gauge, and they were identical. So I carefully drilled out the rivets and removed the tab from the block-off plate. I also made some measurements of where the hole needed to be for the needle to protrude through and drilled that with a 11/64" bit.


Now came the tricky part, the fonts for the gauge. I had been in contact with a well-known gauge company and had sent them a pdf file showing the decal I wanted them to make. They agreed that they could make it, and I was about 5 minutes from pulling the trigger when I went on the site and saw the thread that Parklane410 posted concerning the gauge overlay kit he was selling. I immediately bought the overlay kit. It was like it was meant to be. Here's what Jason's kit looks like, minus a couple of the overlays for the little gauges that I already installed before I took this picture:


Here's what the old cover plate looks like with the holes drilled and the overlay installed:


Here it is installed to the truck's original mount plate, using the tiny faceplate mounting screws from the Olds gauge. I also removed the needle stop from the Olds gauge and drilled a tiny hole and super-glued in on the new faceplate. I also determined where zero Hg location was on the gauge and pressed the needle in place. I have yet to paint the needle, but it will be painted.


Here it is, installed in the cluster. It looks 100% factory. I figure that I have about $33 invested in it when you consider the ebay price and the overlay price. I wound up overlaying all of the gauges, so the vacuum gauge overlay price was 1/7th of the total cost of the overlay set ($35). That's a heck of a lot cheaper than some of the $200 gauges I was seeing on ebay.


Next step, tach! Stay tuned for more cheap-ass adventures!

[FreakyMalo]

Great job chevyrestoguy! Thanks for posting that. I have one of those Olds vac gauges in the garage, it doesn't have the fancy space tape like yours but it'll work for this conversion. This board is dripping with great ideas.

[dracko]

Yeah this is a great thread. Subscribed!

Rideblue, do you have any pics of how you mounted the gauge inside the cluster?

Thanks.

[rideblue00]

I didnt take any pics of the inside setup. However if you look at my 4th pic you can see the screws that hold it. Its really a simple setup. The screws go into the back of the gauge housing. Only thing to make sure is not to let the screws interfere with the working mechanism. I had to enlarge the holes through the bracket so they miss the mechanism.

[HEI451]

That first gauge will work just fine as a vacuum gauge only, no problems. And, if anyone asks what the other scale is, tell 'em it is a "boost gauge" and let 'em wonder. Should be fun to watch people pour over the truck looking for the supercharger/turbo. It'd probably be just as happy measuring fuel OR air pressure.

[dracko]

I didnt take any pics of the inside setup. However if you look at my 4th pic you can see the screws that hold it. Its really a simple setup. The screws go into the back of the gauge housing. Only thing to make sure is not to let the screws interfere with the working mechanism. I had to enlarge the holes through the bracket so they miss the mechanism.

Okay I get what you're sayin. Thanks!

[northern 85]

Cool thread!

[duallyjams]

Good info.