Adding Mechanical Gauges

**TOYMINATOR** · 06-24-2013, 01:17 AM

I recently finished this project in my rig and decided to do a little tech article since it should be fairly the same adding these to any vehicle.

My 85 4Runner did not come from the factory with an oil pressure gauge, and since doing a fresh rebuild of the motor I did not want to trust the factory 'idiot light' that it came equipped with.

I decided to purchase Sunpro's mini gauge cluster. It was $29.95 at at AutoZone. This particular cluster comes with an oil pressure gauge, temperature gauge and volt-meter. My rig did come with a factory temperature gauge so I decided to use the temperature gauge that came with the cluster as a transmission temperature gauge.

With limited space in my dash, the best place to mount them was directly under my radio. The face plate that came with it pictured above would not work in the dash so I made my own face plate out of some sheet metal.

While I was at it, I converted the incandescent bulbs that Sunpro provided with some blue LED's so it would match the rest of the lighting in my dash. You can see that the sensor for the temperature gauge is permanently attached to the gauge itself. I went ahead and connected the tubing for the oil pressure gauge that was supplied with the cluster from Sunpro.

I mocked it up on a spare radio bezel I had lying around to make sure everything fit before installing it in the dash.

So I pulled out the radio to install the gauge cluster and to wire up the volt-meter and the lighting for the gauges. The volt-meter just requires 12 volts, which I got from the ignition circuit so the volt-meter would turn on and off with the ignition. The gauge lighting I connected to my instrument lighting circuit so they would come on with the rest of the factory gauge lighting.

Here is what the final product looked like once all the dash work was done.

Next was to connect the temperature gauge sensor so I could get a reading from the transmission fluid. The easiest thing to do was to tap into one of the transmission cooler lines. So I went to Home Depot and purchased a brass FIP 1/2" tee and a couple of brass 3/8" barb to 1/2" MIP adapters. I went with a 1/2" tee even though the cooler lines are 3/8" because I wanted more room for the sensor and for fluid flow.

As you can see there is plenty of room for the sensor.

Then just had to tap into the cooler line. If you look behind the bump stop you will see I improvised with some C-clamps and some wood as I did not have any line clamps. But hey, you use what ya got right?

Then I cut the hose. Lost a couple of teaspoons of fluid.

Then installed my fittings and ran the sensor through the firewall from the cab.

Then hooked it up.

Next was to plumb the oil pressure tubing. Sunpro gives you standard fittings in a variety of sizes to use which is great if you have an American vehicle but they leave you hanging if you have an import. So I had to purchase a metric adapter from AutoMeter to replace the factory sensor for the 'idiot light'.

Next I pulled the factory sensor out. On my rig it was located directly under the oil filter.

Then I screwed in the metric adapter I got from AutoMeter.

Once it was in, I was able to use one of the flared fittings that came with the Sunpro gauges to screw into it.

Then just like the temperature sensor, I ran the tubing through the firewall from the cab and hooked it up.

After that it was ready to test for any leaks, so I cranked it up and checked all my fittings to make sure there weren't any drips.

It was a fairly simple install and any gauge cluster you purchase should come with the fittings you need to install them. Now of coarse they don't give you fittings to install the temperature gauge on the transmission because they expect you will use it as a coolant temperature gauge...but like I said, I already had a factory temperature gauge. To install it as intended, you would just need to pull your temperature sensor out of your thermostat housing and use the supplied fittings to screw back in its place.