Gauges where the radio used to be.... | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Gauges where the radio used to be....

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City, State
Greensboro, North Carolina
Year, Model & Trim Level
94 Limited
I have been wanting to do this for the longest time, and I finally was able to tackle it over a two day period. After realizing that I never listen to the radio when I drive my Explorer, I decided that my Sony was way to nice to just sit and do nothing, so out it came. Of course, I ordered my Autometer tranny temp gauge first, got all the metal and screws next, and went to work on it Tuesday evening. Today I got it all finished up, and am really pleased with how it turned out, now I just need to get the wires all connected.

Of course, if an artist is going to work, he has to have a good canvas, so I went to Home Depot and picked up a nice little work bench. Working on top of the freezer was just not going to cut it for this project:cool:
787garage-med.jpg


Again at Home Depot, earlier of course, I picked up a sheet of metal so I could make the panel. Took many measurements, and added a few 16ths to them, and eyeballed a couple of them also. Finally was able to produce a decent panel.
787gauge2-med.jpg


Then I test fitted the whole assembly to make sure I was not going to have to trim the panel or any part of the dash where the radio was. The Dremel tool is our friends:D
787gauge1-med.jpg


After I decided all was good, I had to drill holes and put some screws in to make it all stay in place. Once that was complete, then I gave it a coat of paint and called it a day.
787gauge3-med.jpg



I plan on putting two more gauges in there at some point, but Mr. Credit Card Bill says "Not right now you aren't." A quick question for those of you that have gauges, do you think I would be alright in running the ignition switch wire off the one that was for my radio? As well as the ground? Because the harness is still there, and I know the instructions say to ground the gauge near the sender, but since those wires are just centimeters away from the gauge, I was going to save some time and use those.

One last question, I have the remote tranny filter, and I know a couple guys have ran a gauge off it, did you need to ground the sender or was it okay without?
 



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i like it.....thats freakin' awesome!
 












Thanks man:)
If anyone decides to make the sacrifice, let me know and I can send you the measurements. But you will be on your own for drilling the holes, because I almost fawked up when making the last one:p
 






Single Din panels:

www.42draftdesigns.com

Though those won't exactly fit the parallelogram opening in the first gen.
 












Very cool! I also like where you have your CB handset mount...might move mine, it's a pita to reach around the gear shift to get mine. Anyway awsome work!

Later
CP :D
 






Yes, but those fit in any single din rectangular opening :p

Good job.
 






Very nice install.

What other instruments are you going to use?

What did you do with the radio?
 






I just want to know how you mounted the temp sender for the gage.
I ended up re-loacting the sender for my similar autometer temp gage into the tranny pan, the temp reading is much much more accurate now.

Looks good! No radio = me no understand ???
 






Alec at first I was thinking of making something exactly like what you posted, but I noticed how the was some extra space around the radio slot, so I just went ahead and filled it up. Those panels are cool, probably would have been easier to do too:p

Al I am probably going to put in a voltmeter and maybe a water temp sender. Have not fully decided on what the third gauge is going to be yet. And I am going to try and sell the radio, I have no use for it. Its a Sony CDXMP70. If anyone is interested, pm me.

410, I have a remote transmission filter, Hank on here had put one on his Explorer and did a write up of it here , and later I bought the same thing. And it already has the fitting for a sender, so all I had to do was screw it right in. Where did you have the sender mounted before you relocated it? And I took out the radio because I never listen to it while I am driving, I like listening for anything wrong with my engine. Because I have in the past, not heard a whistling or a ticking in my engine because of my radio, so out it came! :confused:
 






okay thats what I figured. the filter is installed in the cooler return line correct?

Just make sure you adjust in your head the readin on the gage. If your cooler is working properly then you can add 80-90 degrees to the temp reading on the gage and that will be close to what the actual temp of the ATF in the transmission is, you will be reading the tempature of the fluid after it has been cooled and is on its way back to the tranny.

I had mine installed in the return line similar to that, rarely would the temp rise above 100 degrees. Now with the sender re-located directly into the tranny pan it reads 135-150 under normal driving, which is perfect for me! If it hits 180 thats when I start to worry. My information says that standard ATF is ok until 200 degrees then it starts to break down and fail to cool and lubricate. Apparently some synthetics run up to 250-275. 135 may be overkill but in my book thats a perfect temp for my truck to run at. :)
coolant runs at 190-195, tranny at 135-150, and the oil pressure about 25 psi idle, 50 psi driving.

Oh and a voltmeter is about the most useless gage I have ever owned. Can you guess which gage I removeds when I got the tranny temp?

Although rick had some electrical problems at Thaven and his stock battery light came on and his Voltmeter pegged at 18 volts, so the gage helped Rick to know something was wrong, but I still think the volt gage is about worthless.
 






i can't stand being in a car or truck witout a radio,it drives me CRAZY
 






Ak, my Explorer is not my daily driver, but if it was, that gauge might not be there.....:rolleyes:

410, I have my filter on the line coming out from the tranny. Because I knew when I installed it that I would eventually be putting in a gauge and I did not want to see the temp after the fluid had been cooled. What other gauges are you using?
 






Okay good. Which line is the out and which one is the return? (bottom, top) I cant remember.

Those are the 3 gages I use, mechanical oil, mechanical coolant temp, and the Autometer phantom electrical tranny temp.

the oil pressure and coolant temp gages are some older Autogage 2-5/8" black face gages. Autogage is a cheapo version of the Autometers. I need to buy two more Autometer Phantoms so they will all 3 match :)
 






If you are sitting in front of your Explorer, looking at the two transmission lines, the one on the right is the..........wait...dang it. I forgot. Now that I think about it, I may not have my filter setup as I thought I did:rolleyes: I will have to check it tomorrow. I do remember that the right line is the one that ran through the radiator, but I think the left line is the one coming from the transmission, which is the one I have running to my cooler. So yeah, I think my filter is after the cooler actually....Time to switch the lines!
 












I have been driving it for a few days, and everything seems to be working fine. Cruising down the highway, the temp does not exceed 150. But when I am driving through town, it stays between 150 and 180, and if I remember correctly, that is about the normal operating temperature. The thing I was concerned with was how I have it wired, and if it would interfere with the gauge reading, but it does not seem to have affected it any:D
 






Well this answers some of the questions I had in my
" Tranny guage problem post "
My sender is in the filter assy ( Perma-Cool ) and it does not get off of 140. I initially assumed it did not work but low and behold it might just be running real cool.


BTW I love the trim, how did you get that look ? The stone finish.
 



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The stone finish is just spray paint actually. And to give you and idea of how durable it is, I applied that back in highschool, and I graduated in 2000:D And I do not even think it was my senior year when I did it either. The black trim around the radio had started to get chipped, and I had remembered my brother doing the same thing to his truck and I thought I would give it a try. The paint is called Stone Accents.
 






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