Digital gauges

JasonNC

Has anyone installed a digital oil pressure gauge on a Hudson engine.  I bought the digital volt meter and it looks like it is going to work well.  The oil pressure gauge apparently uses a sensor that comes separate from the gauge.  If I can't use a modern oil pressure gauge that doesn't require a copper or plastic tube that runs into the car interior, I'll just put in a digital tach instead.

JasonNC

I went ahead and installed a digital volt meter.  I stole the idea from TwinH.  The digital oil pressure gauge is supposedly on the way.  Here are a few pics of the volt meter.

RL Chilton

Moved to the Street Rod Section.  

KTRON

Digital gauges will look very out of place in your vintage car. I ran into the same issue with my 79 GMC truck I have been restoring. Dakota Digital made a fancy digital dashboard for it which some people love, but I do not. I replaced the stock (6) AC gauges in place of a custom 23 gauge Stewart Warner instrument cluster on engine turned stainless steel. A majority of these gauges are from the same series, (same diameter, same pointer, same dial design), however a few of the gauges I wanted were never offered in the series, so I generated new dial designs in Adobe Illustrator and screenprinted them on some sheet metal to make appropriate dials for different series mechanical gauges. It costs a fortune to make a really nice setup, let alone figure out which sending units you need before hunting them down, but I reckon its worth it. I believe Stewart Warner built many of the factory gauges for the Hudson Automobile, but I might be wrong on that. Their art deco style lettering will be awfully hard to match,

Chris

Ric West IN

Gauges were by King Seely, if I remember correctly they also provided guages for Ford during this

time period

JasonNC

KTRON,

My idiot light for the generator/alternator went out a few years back and I didn't realize I had a problem until it was almost too late.  I didn't put digital gauges on the car for looks, but I want to know if I have a problem in advance.  

Park_W

Why not both?  Aircraft have warning lights to get your attention, and gauges to indicate the exact condition.

Jon B

Slightly off-topic, but for those of us who love originality but want certain modern upgrades, it would be great to develop some sort of flip-down panel under the dash of our Hudsons, which would contain all the things Hudson never gave us: emergency brake warning light, high-beam and turn signal lights (for older Hudsons), amp gauges, and so forth.  I envision some sort of spring-activated sheet metal panel, into which the necessary lights and gauges are mounted.  This would "park" in a horizontal position, parallel to the floor, invisible under the dash when the car is on display in a car show.  The spring would hold it horizontally.  When you're on the road you'd simply flip the panel down (the spring would be so constructed as to hold the panel in a rigid vertical orientation).  Thus, we could preserve the vintage "look" of the dash, while having as much modern instrumentation as we liked, available to us as we drive.  Somebody....put your thinking cap on!

parkerm

John,

I like the way you think.

ken1962

Why not go one better and have all the information sent wireless from a sender box in the engine bay directly to a iphone running some app? you could mount the iphone and view all the gauges as screen displays plus the iphone could have a voice "Hi Dave, the water temp is above normal" " What are you doing Dave? Don't drive with the emergency brake on" hehe

Geoff

Or you could buy a brand new 2015 model with all these factors built in.   Save a lot of messing around!

bob ward

Springs Jon??  Surely this panel should also be smart enough to automatically lower itself when the ignition is turned on.        

Sort of in the same vein, I believe it is now possible to buy a GPS speedo. 

Glowplug

I place my IPhone in the ash tray ( I do not smoke) and view a digital speedometer that works with gps and map. Found that my speedo is off by 15 mph slow.

Park_W

In the last 3 or 4 years I've had the speedo's in both the '51 and the '47 repaired and calibrated.  Interesting that now, according to the GPS unit, both these speedometers are dead on from stopped to 70 mph.  I wouldn't have thought they could be so linear all the way up.  And it shows that the almost universal error on the high side on the older cars was either intentional by the manufacturers or at the least indicates a lack of interest in accuracy.

RL Chilton

In the last 3 or 4 years I've had the speedo's in both the '51 and the '47 repaired and calibrated.  Interesting that now, according to the GPS unit, both these speedometers are dead on from stopped to 70 mph.  I wouldn't have thought they could be so linear all the way up.  And it shows that the almost universal error on the high side on the older cars was either intentional by the manufacturers or at the least indicates a lack of interest in accuracy.

Park, did you do that by changing out the gear?

Park_W

Park, did you do that by changing out the gear?

No, I didn't do anything with gearing.  Just sent out for repair.

Critical note for those with '50 and earlier cars . . . be sure your speedo repair shop is aware that Hudson used a different calibration speed than everyone else.  Other folks calibrated for 60 mph at 1,000 rpm of the cable, Hudson calibrated for 60 mph at 2,000 rpm.  If your speedo shop doesn't know this, you'll get a unit back that shows 60 mph when you're going 30.  I had a heck of a time convincing the first shop I tried, resulting in getting my unit back totally screwed up.  Finally asked the fellow to check with any old-timer in the business, and he was finally convinced.  Did a fine job with calibration as well as needed repair.

Lee ODell

I took my 52 Hornet to speedo shop to see how actual the speedometer was.
The odometer registers 100% on 100 actual miles However, the speedometer error was not 100%.

Speedometer reads - Actual M.P.H.

30 - 28
35 - 32
40 - 36
45 - 40
50 --45
55 - 49
60 - 53
65 - 57
70 - 62
75 - 67

This error my be consistant with most stepdowns. A friend followed me in his 51 Hudson. When I drove at these actual speeds, right column, his speedometer was reading speeds in left column.

Lee O'Dell

dwardo99

I don't know how it happened, but a long time ago my uncle and I checked the speedometer in the '53 against my GPS and both speedometer and odometer were very accurate. Unheard of. I suspect the manufacturers made the speedo optimistic on purpose because it would give the illusion of better performance and gas mileage than what was reality. When I read old car magazine reviews it appears that all makes had a substantial error in the same direction. 

ernie28

Interesting. my Pacemaker reads high. Speedo 65mph = 60mph on GPS. This suits me better then reading low.

The car has overdrive with a 4.1 rear end

RL Chilton

Lee-

I think that's fairly typical.  Mine reads nearly identical to your chart.  Eventually, I'd like to get both cars calibrated so that they are accurate.  

Lee ODell

Russell

Thanks Russel for verifying the chart is fairly consistant with Hudson un-calibrated speedometers.

I do not remember what the speedo shop wanted to calibrate my speedometer. More than I was willing to pay. Since I have the chart in the car on trips its an easy glance to see what speed I need to go. One comforting thought: I'll not be get a speeding ticket unless the speedometer needle is reading 80mph and up.

Lee O'Dell

JasonNC

I bought a cheap GPS and glued the stand to the dash.  I use it for my speedometer since the car speed is 10 mph too fast. It also comes in handy when I'm trying to locate where I'm going.  

Per

When my overdrive transmission was in its original car (with 4.56 axle) it read the way the chart indicates.  After I put it in a car with a 4.10 axle, the speedometer agrees exactly with the speed indicators that police have put up in my area.  However, the odometer reads 10% low!