Transmission temp gauge
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Transmission temp gauge
Hi. I just installed a new electric transmission temperature gauge on my 05 1500 Hemi Ram (for travel trailer hauling) and I thought I'd share the few wrinkles I found.
I'd bought the one pod pillar from an eBay seller that I have forgotten the make, and welded a 1/2" NPT fitting into the oilpan. I installed a brand new mechanical gauge I'd had sitting around the shop that I bought years ago for another purpose but never used. It was beautiful to look at and the lighting dimmed perfectly with the stock gauges but I found that since it's range was 140 - 315 degrees F., it was not as practical as I had hoped.
I bought an electric gauge, an Autometer Ultra Lite II, and I took out the mechanical gauge.
The install went pretty much like this one except for my sending unit being on the pan instead of the port.
I found though that the nylon rear clamp ring that holds the gauge into its hole was too thick and large to jam in beside the gauge when it is in it's pillar pod hole. It's far too tight a space to permit it. I had to judiciously belt sand the clamp ring adjacent to one threaded post to reduce it in thickness on the tight side. This still didn't bring it down enough to fit well and the rim was a little bit out of flush on one side, so I put a square section 2 1/16 neoprene ring on the gauge and that took up the little bit of discrepency perfectly. Now you can't tell it wouldn't have been perfectly seated Looks the same all the way around.
I found that the LED backlighting was brighter than my other gauges, annoyingly so. Bright enough that the background didn't look quite black, but gray.
I tried wiring a pigtail equipped filament panel light from my parts bin, in series with the LED lights and this stepped the brightness down just perfectly, first try.
So I connected and shrink-wrapped it into place.
The background looks black at night now and the numbers and lettering are the same brightness as the rest of the instruments.
I'd bought the one pod pillar from an eBay seller that I have forgotten the make, and welded a 1/2" NPT fitting into the oilpan. I installed a brand new mechanical gauge I'd had sitting around the shop that I bought years ago for another purpose but never used. It was beautiful to look at and the lighting dimmed perfectly with the stock gauges but I found that since it's range was 140 - 315 degrees F., it was not as practical as I had hoped.
I bought an electric gauge, an Autometer Ultra Lite II, and I took out the mechanical gauge.
The install went pretty much like this one except for my sending unit being on the pan instead of the port.
I found though that the nylon rear clamp ring that holds the gauge into its hole was too thick and large to jam in beside the gauge when it is in it's pillar pod hole. It's far too tight a space to permit it. I had to judiciously belt sand the clamp ring adjacent to one threaded post to reduce it in thickness on the tight side. This still didn't bring it down enough to fit well and the rim was a little bit out of flush on one side, so I put a square section 2 1/16 neoprene ring on the gauge and that took up the little bit of discrepency perfectly. Now you can't tell it wouldn't have been perfectly seated Looks the same all the way around.
I found that the LED backlighting was brighter than my other gauges, annoyingly so. Bright enough that the background didn't look quite black, but gray.
I tried wiring a pigtail equipped filament panel light from my parts bin, in series with the LED lights and this stepped the brightness down just perfectly, first try.
So I connected and shrink-wrapped it into place.The background looks black at night now and the numbers and lettering are the same brightness as the rest of the instruments.
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Registered User
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Stock tranny cooler was a scrawney 10 core oil rad. Towing a 3800 pound trailer this summer it hit 200 degrees on the highway at times, and on a long low speed gravel hill it kept climbing until 230, when I stopped and shut things down to cool.
There is no fan forced air unless the motor needs it, and it didn't, so no air flow except for what pushing the truck through the air at 50 K did, and that wasn't cutting it.
I went to the wrecking yard and got an oil cooler off a 3/4 ton, a 15 core version.
Not trusting this 50% improvement to make enough difference I decided to put the newer 15 core rad in the original position and make new brackets for the old one, and I put both of the tranny rads in there in series, for 25 cores.
Then added a surplus switch operated fan, for good measure.
Well I went for the same all day drive, now with a 7000 pound trailer, and what a difference! The tranny never got above 180 on the highway even with this much bigger load, and on that long slow gravel climb the transmission temp gauge needle went to 180 and stayed there like it was nailed down.
And I didn't even run the fan.
Total cost, $50.00 plus some threaded inserts and a bit of wire.
There is no fan forced air unless the motor needs it, and it didn't, so no air flow except for what pushing the truck through the air at 50 K did, and that wasn't cutting it.
I went to the wrecking yard and got an oil cooler off a 3/4 ton, a 15 core version.
Not trusting this 50% improvement to make enough difference I decided to put the newer 15 core rad in the original position and make new brackets for the old one, and I put both of the tranny rads in there in series, for 25 cores.
Then added a surplus switch operated fan, for good measure.
Well I went for the same all day drive, now with a 7000 pound trailer, and what a difference! The tranny never got above 180 on the highway even with this much bigger load, and on that long slow gravel climb the transmission temp gauge needle went to 180 and stayed there like it was nailed down.
And I didn't even run the fan.
Total cost, $50.00 plus some threaded inserts and a bit of wire.