I'm thinking about putting a transmission temp gauge in my truck. Is it hard to install? Where would a good location be to put the gauge. If I had my way, I would love to have it in a pod on the door frame just above the tweeter. Any ideas? By the way, I was thinking about this because I do a lot of towing. Opinons??

 

Temp guage is a great way to keep tabs on your trans. You can prevent some serious damage to your trans that way.

The gauges are pretty easy to install. I recommend Autometer for all your gauge and pod needs. They have a-pillar pods, dash pods, and steering column pods for our trucks. They also have a ton of different style gauges to choose from. I went with a Z-series gauge because it most closly resembled the rest of my stock gauge cluster, so it looks OEM. It's mounted in a steering column gauge pod because I used my a-pillar for a custom grab handle instead. All the wiring instuctions are very straight forward.

The big question you need to ask yourself though is where to put the sending unit. Unless you use more then one (like I happen to do), you are never really getting the full picture of how your trans and trans cooler are doing. I recommend the front servo port of the trans as a good location, or in-line on the line heading to the trans cooler (the pressure line, not the return line). The pan is always another possible location, but I don't like it as well.

 

Here's a write-up I did some time ago. It gives a fairly good outline of the necessary steps and some mistakes I made when doing the job:
https://dodgeforum.com/m_473701/tm.htm

 

+1 for the steering column pod

SILVERand ASH, did the autometer guage you bought come with all the wiring and temperature sensor? Whatpart numbers did you get? I'm assuming you had to buy the brass fittings elsewhereper your writeup.

 

My Z-series gauge came with a pig tail of wire, and one electrical (versus mechanical) temp sending unit (which I happen to know is part # 2258 because I bought a second sending unit). The rest of the wiring I bought at a parts store (automotive wiring in 18 gauge size). The part numbers I used for the gauge and pod were:
AutoMeter Z-Series 2640 2" Guage: $42.88
Autometer Steering Column Pod 15012: $26.99

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I second what Silver_Dodge said. I got the brass fittings at Lowes or a local hardware store. Note to use different colored wires when you run the wiring. You don't want to get the ground wires mixed up with the wire for the lights, etc.

I like the pillar pod mount. I kept it as low as possible, and it doesn't block my vision at all. Personnal preference on that though.

I'd like to run a second sensor like Silver_Dodge has done. By putting it in the hot line to the radiator, I see quick spikes in temperature when pulling a hill in 1st or 2nd gear. It'll jump from 150 to 200 F in about a mile when I'm towing the camper up the ridge to my house. Once I get to the top and can run on the level, it will drop by 20 F quickly. I would like to see how much heat the cooler is stripping away from the fluid, or see what the average is in the pan. Getting the sensor installed is just one of those jobs that is low on the priority list rightnow.

 

Eh, I don't like that as it partially obstructs the speedo. I am planning to installed two temp gauges. One for the fluid temp when it comes out of the transmission and the other for the fluid temp as it comes out of the cooler. This plan also calls for the pillar pod mounting setup.

 

It really isn't that bad. The picture is somewhat misleading. Plus, you get used to it anyway.

 

I have all my extra temp gauges in a 3-gauge pillar pod in my Ram. I like the fact I can glance and see them on my left.



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