VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 '37 Chevy 1/2 Ton guage hlp

Hi everybody, I'm a recent owner of a '37 Chevy 1/2 ton PU. I've been wanting to get involved with Classic cars for sometime now and finally had the right circumstances to allow me to do that. My Chevy is restored close to original. I'm currently going through my gauges and trying to get my original ones working. Are there any recommendations or tips I should know? ANY help would be appreciated.

Welcome Camile. The inference is none of your gauges are working now? Are your engine temp and oil pressure tubes intact? Is your wiring complete and connected? A tad more info will help us to help you.

Welcome aboard! We would love to see some photos of your truck.

gauges: Your heat gauge should be mechanical. The sending end is mounted in the head. It should be possible to unscrew the retaining nut and lift it up. You can then plunge it in a cup of boiling water to see if the gauge moves. There is a sealed tube that runs from the sender to the gauge and it is filled with a gas.

You ammeter responds to current going to and from the battery. With the engine off, turning on the head lights should cause the gauge to show a discharge.

Your oil pressure gauge has a line that goes from the engine block to the gauge. It reacts to the actual oil pressure.

Sorry for being too general. Just excited to find a spot to bounce questions off of. Let's start with 2 of them. My speedometer wasn't working so I bought one off eBay. Mine has a female end on it with a male end on my cable. The one I bought looks just like mine except it has a male end on the back of it. Looks like I need a different cable. Any ideas?? The 2nd one is my gas gauge. I bought a new sender and once I had it all hooked up it looked like my needle only moved a little off of "E" when my tank is full. Do y'all think my gauge is bad? Also I will post pics once I figure out how. Lol

Ok, so your gas gauge shouldn't be too difficult to diagnose. With the sender lead disconnected at the dash, turning on the ignition should cause it to register full. Now attaching a ground to the sender terminal at the dash should cause it to read empty.

I haven't seen a speedometer with a male connector.

What is the resistance of your new sender? Your gauge is 30 ohm. I've never seen a speedo with a male connecter either. Maybe time to contact the seller?

I think the new sender is 60 ohms. Not 100% sure on that though. I tried to download a pic of the speedometer. Here it is:

I've not seen a speedo like that before. Hopefully someone else will be able to help you.

That is a '36 truck speedometer. Maybe some passenger models also.

Mike

Can I make that work with my '37 transmission?? Will a new cable work?