kball

Mechanical gauges are much cheaper than electrical but the trade off is the sensor is attached by a 6' lead that can't be taken off. You can't cut or bend the lead too sharply. The lead is a capillary tubing that contains a liquid like alcohol which expands driving the gauge. So if you bend it too far it will pinch and stop the fluid from expanding. That said, I bought the Sunpro Style Line water/oil temp gauge at Autozone for around $17. http://www.sunpro.com/product_detail.php?pid=16300 An electric full sweep gauge like this will cost around $100+ Also since the lead is only 6' and can't be adjusted, placement of the gauge is limited.
These are the parts I used for the installation.
Here's the gauge. It comes with a few brass adapters pictured.

I got a variety of grommets but ended up only using the 13/16OD X 1/2ID grommet. A tube of silicone to seal the hole I made.

I bought a brass 1/2" T. Even though the trans lines are 3/8ths I wanted more room for the sensor and for fluid flow. Also bought two 1/2" to 3/8ths push on barb adapters.

As you can see the sensor has plenty of room for flow through the T.


Also got some Harbor Freight special protective wire wrap.

I chose my spot for a hole. On the tranny hump, in front of the shifter. I step drilled starting small and worked up to a 1/2" drill. Then used a dremel and grinding wheel to make the hole a little bigger so the sensor nut could go through. The material is not very thick there. It's just a bad angle. The drill just wants to slide up on the hump. If you have a 90 deg adapter it would be easier. I put some primer on the bare metal.


Here's a shot from underneath looking up at the hole. Lots of room up there.


So then the fun began. The sensor has to go through everything first. The faceplate that the gauge bolts to. Then I put the grommet on (I could have cut it but wanted it to be completed circle) then I routed everything through the hole. Went along the original trans cooler lines to my new cooler lines and put in the T. Covered the caillary tube with the split sleeve protective wire wrap (which was a pain to do by myself, in the truck to push some, under the truck to pull some, over and over). Then I put a zip tie on the wire wrap to hold it up so it wouldn't fall through the grommet and silicone sealed the hole as best I could. Here's a pic or two...




I placed my gauge here. I cut a little notch out for the line to go through. It's a little hard to read but it works and like I said before, with just a 6' lead, placement is limited. I could probably remount it and make it face the driver a little better but I'll just wait and see how it goes.


As you can tell I did not hook up the light. At this point I don't think I will. I don't tow and I have no plans for night time wheeling.
There is just enough capillary tube slack left to be able to lift the console cover off if needed. So like I was saying, not a lot of line to work with so the gauge goes where it fits I guess.

J2F42C

It looks good.

More than anything, you will now know the tranny temp. I take it you are still using the B&M 70268 not mounted right up against the condenser? Post some temps please.

As a personal preference, I would try and mount the gauge right above the 4x4 shifter. A 2 1/8" hole saw bit works. But it depends on the depth of the SunPro.

kball

Thanks

I actually have my cooler mounted near the grill with brackets. Which is why I wanted to install the gauge to see what temps I was getting. I drove around for about 20 minutes yesterday to get it fully warmed up and in stop and go traffic (ambient temp 85) it was hovering around the 160-170 range. Then I went over to a city by me called Signal Hill. They have one street that has a 25% grade for about 1/4 mile. I gunned it up that and the temp went up to around 180-190. I don't off road much but the plan is to do more so I will update results or changes I make as I go.