My 20 year old gauges are starting to show some signs of age.

- Port tac bounces +/-500 rpm quite often. All connections seem to be tight. I have been using the starboard tac and engine sync.
- Starboard oil pressure sticks at 40psi after you shut down.
- Starboard ammeter sticks on start-up.
- Fuel gauges...who knows?...I use engine time x fuel burn (Old pilot habits die hard).
- All gauges seem to work better the more the boat is run. We all know, lack of use causes problems!

Questions:
- Should I bite the bullet and replace all gauges at once. Both tacs, oil pressure, ammeters, water temp (not fuel).
- How do I determine if it is the gauge or sending unit. I am 80% guessing it is the gauges and not sending units?
- Is this a do-able DIY project or should I leave this up to my mechanics who are very good and very fair priced.
- If/when replacing should I try to go with as close a Teleflex replacement part as possible?
- If I go with total replacement, what would be a good ballpark cost

Any thoughts would be quite helpful. Any way to save a buck would be great too!

Thanks, Scott

Hey, Newbie, I'll bet those are all flybridge gages, right? Nasty environment up there. You might save yourself a ton of trouble by "simply" replacing them all over the winter.

If I had to do that (thank God no!) I would disconnect and label every wire where the wiring joins the terminal strip. Then, I would remove the entire gage panel, photograph the hell out of it, label the hell out of it, then proceed to replace one gage at a time. That way, you might avoid an Ah Sh*t! moment or three.

Good luck!

Jeff

Scott
Don't forget to disconnect the battery or sparks will fly.
Bill

Check the voltage at the gauges and see if the Chrysler Voltage regulator is bad. (Well actually they never worked very well.) In the early days, They made a bimetallic thing-a-ma-bob that should be replaced (1960's?) when it goes bad with the newer electronic one. Someone had a circuit for an electronic regulator to replace the Chrysler, (no fluttery gauges). Lost the link.

Third party regulators do a much better job. will check around.

Sounds like this is good advice for both ends of the connection; the gauge and the source/sender,

We both have a similar problem. My project 32' sat out for years and the flybridge gauge set took a beating from the elements. The inside console gauges all worked perfectly and the wiring looked new. The gas senders were shot. I pulled the flybridge gauge wiring harness out in mostly one piece. It's on the bench waiting to be reconditioned. I would never pull the inside wiring harness - work on it in place. I downloaded a bunch of stuff about gauges from the Teleflex web site. I went back there to look for the links so I could give them to you. They reworked the website and they removed the search function so I couldn't find the links. I sent a message to complain and they promptly responded with a .PDF on testing gauges which I will attach to a message as soon as I figure out how. There are other good Teleflex writeups such as "Marine Fuel System", "oil pressure systems", "voltmeters", "temperature systems". there If you pester them at www.tflx.com they may send you the PDF's. Meanwhile I will look for mine. We should build a document repository on this forum for this stuff. The only gauges I have not discovered how to bench test are tachometers. Still looking.

I did find this newer stuff but but it has less information in more languages.

http://www.teleflexmarin...ype=us&library=1019

I am also looking for the perfect chemical cleaner for the terminal connections. There are hundreds of oxidized connections on my flybridge harness. Some I will replace but I don't want to detach clean and re-attach each one. There is also the whole solder vs. crimp thing. This is kind of a religous issue. Doug Rose may weigh on on solder. I bought aircraft quality insulated double crimp connectors and a matching ratcheting crimper. They don't use solder on most aircraft and they sure didn't on Marinettes.

If you need new senders let us know. There are members here that know where to get the right New Old Stock (NOS). Note dual station and single station senders may differ.

I don't mean to get into a discussion of crimp vs. solder, obviously crimp works fine in lots of hi-tech applications. I just think solder is better when just a few wires are being terminated.

I haven't tried this: I use a solder pot for my terminals. I just crimp lightly, flux, and then hold the wire and dip the whole terminal into the solder -- until there is good flow up the wire. So, perhaps old terminals could be 'refurbished' by the same method, and then dressed up with a little tape or shrink tubing. It would be a lot faster than what I have done. I replaced most of the cables entire, but they were terrible, being in the World's Worst Corrosion Environment (tm). The original factory wiring was pretty good when new, and must still be OK in fresh water.

I use electronic senders from Centroid Products. They work very well, and one is 15+ years old.

I ordered $57 worth of Deoxit connector cleaner to work on my flybridge gauge wiring harness. It's expensive but my homemade acid solutions didn't work well. I'll let you know how it goes. I'm setting up the test bench now.

I have put some information on Marinette gauges on my website at http://web.me.com/dougmr...ses_Website/Gauges.html

Perhaps it will be a useful reference for someone.....

Electricians use a compound called noalox between conections that have aluminum AND copper present (as in the junction of two dissimilar metals) to keep oxidation in check. It is an antioxident and is very easy to use, simply wipe it on any CLEAN connection and wipe off any excess to get an oxidation free joint. I have used this product for years and is required by the code to stop oxidation between copper and aluminum. I have not used it in the marine envirnment as yet, but I see no reason it could not be used. It is made by Ideal and is readily available at any home depot or lowes for about 4 bucks for a small tube. If anyone has used this product on this level, let us know. JAM