Just made myself a plywood dash and still fighting (mentally) over the pain of having to use the Sierra instrument pod.

The best value range of gauges I have found is the Racetech ones. A set of Speedo, Tach, Fuel and Temp + all senders is going to set me back about £270, which I don't have. Plus I would need to buy something like the Bright6 shown in the photos to give the warning lights I need.

The Sierra pod is ugly and means messing about with a pain in the arse speedo cable as well. However it works, has all the lights and I know the speedo will be accurate for SVA.

Somebody help me sort this out PLEASE!

Are there any other solutions???

I've even considered not having a tacho to reduce the cost, but am worried it will look pants.

Rescued attachment img20.jpg

Rescued attachment img21.jpg

Rescued attachment img22.jpg

my mates got some gauges made by sunpro in his car, they were cheap and look pretty good.


link to sunpro home page

can find out where he got his from if you interested

Ray

A cheap alternative that looks a lot better than the Sierra dials are Capri ones.
Rescued attachment 165 to post.jpg

Have a look at the sunpro and VDO stuff that lowtension.com sell.

They also sell on ebay under the ID of lowtension as well.

I'm looking!

Probably a bit more money than you want to spend right now ..... but it has all the lights and instruments that you will need and it looks really bling too!

How much and from where?

Can be had for less than £400 on Ebay if you are patient

or you can buy direct from http://www.evodash.com

Razman - very smart unit and would look great on my new dash, but don't tempt me into something even more expensive - now I've got to think about that as well

Cheers
Nick

Best prices i can find for racetech instruments is http://www.rallydesign.co.uk

Why not go with what you've got and plan to replace it later.
Just make two blanks now to ensure they are the same size.

Mick

...or go for one of these....


Image deleted by owner



Description

Only 189.99 for the basic car set up. You will still need a fuel guage and oil pressure/ water temp and the bright 6

http://www.veypor.co.uk/xcart/home.php

If i get one i'll set it back in the dash and mount it so it faces me.


[Edited on 9/8/05 by donut]

quote:

---

and I know the speedo will be accurate for SVA.

---

Bob - good prices at Rally Designs!

I'm toying with the idea of just buying a speedometer+sender and then cutting the mechanical speedo section off of the Sierra pod. A bit untidy I know, but it gets around the speedo cable routing problem. I can the add the other dials when funds allow.

Nick

how about these for ideas. I done these in photoshop.


Image deleted by owner


Image deleted by owner


Image deleted by owner


[img][/img]

good work Donut!

No. 2 is the look I'm aiming for

Well they are the VDO clock set from ETB Instruments and cost £299, all you will need then is a bright 6.

Before buying the Racetech speedo and tacho you need to be aware of a couple of points:
The tacho doesn't have a 4/6/8 cyl selector switch as you'd expect from the leaflet. Instead it's a pot and you'll need to calibrate the tacho against some other RPM counter - in my case the runtime display in the Megajolt software.

The speedo uses a magnetic pickup (there's a magnet in the pickup and it senses metal zipping past it) and needs a metal disk of some sort to run against. They are configured for 833Hz signal giving 100mph. You'll need to find a suitable place for a disk that has the required number of vanes. Although the speedo is adjustable via a pot on the back if you set it to say use a 400Hz signal for 100mph then your mileage will only increase at half the expected rate.

Personally, I'd never use these tow guages again and instead would spend the extra on a proven setup.

Their 52mm range work ok though but don't match the rev and speedo.

Jed,

Very useful info, which backs up what someone else has been telling me this weekend. I'm looking into other options now!

Cheers
Nick

Why not do as I did and buy a set of Smiths clocks from an old MG. Plenty come up on ebay. Just make sure the speedo is a 1000 turns per mile (its the 4 digit number on the guage) and that the rev counter is -ve earth. I bought fuel gauge and sender, oil pressure gauge and water temp gauge from ebay . My rev counter and speedo came from Andy Jennings at MG Spares , a really nice and helpful chap. He can probably help you out with the other gauges and senders as well.

I payed £90 for the lot and only had to give them a light clean to make them look like new.

I have the same but I don't know what I'm doing!
You have U2U.
Cheers
Jon

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ronin
Why not do as I did and buy a set of Smiths clocks from an old MG. Plenty come up on ebay. Just make sure the speedo is a 1000 turns per mile (its the 4 digit number on the guage) and that the rev counter is -ve earth. I bought fuel gauge and sender, oil pressure gauge and water temp gauge from ebay . My rev counter and speedo came from Andy Jennings at MG Spares , a really nice and helpful chap. He can probably help you out with the other gauges and senders as well.

I payed £90 for the lot and only had to give them a light clean to make them look like new.

---

Triumph speedos are also 1000 tpm - I got a brand new old stock Smiths one for less han a tenner at an autojumble. The Tacho is also Smiths but a bit rougher so I will get a better one at next auto jumble,

The simple way to get an oil presure and water temperature gauge is to use a Smiths combined oil & water gauge as used in the MG Midget -- no electrics connects by capilary pipe only thing to watch is the engine end fitting is much bigger than a Ford sender but that can be worked round.

Ford MK2 1600e and Lotus Elan speedos and tachos are also suitable but when mounting take to avoid SVA sharp edge problems.



[Edited on 17/8/05 by britishtrident]

Mine:
Rescued attachment 3.jpeg

what about this?

tom
Rescued attachment dash.jpg