Did our cars come with mechanical or electrica guages? i have a 1985 z28 camaro with the 85 mph speedo? Anyone know????

 

I have a '86 2.8 with idiot lights, I want to put in Gauges. Are the senders metric or SAE. What size are the oil & temp sensors?

 

Your speedo is mechanical and is driven by a speedo cable that is connected to your trans. I believe in 1990 they changed to electic in camaros. I'm pretty sure the rest of your guages are electric.

 

Yep, oil pressure and water temp are electric sensors. They're driven by the same engine wiring as an idiot light panel. (Ex: water temp, for an idiot light "switch", uses a single green wire. Same wire is used for the gauge "sender". The dashboard figures it all out.)

mvvtw, the senders are sae. I have the Summit Racing dual 2" gauge package (and a dual 2" a-pillar gauge pod). Their oil pressure gauge screwed right in place of my idiot light switch. For the water temp, on the 2.8 V6, it's in the front outer corner of the driver's side head. (Look behind your a/c compressor for the single green wire, and follow it to the driver's side head.) I needed to buy an adapter from Summit; somehow, they knew which one I needed. The adapter was by autometer, I'm going to "say" it was a 1/2 inch adapter, but I could very well be wrong. Summit should know.

Oh, and mvtfw, our '86 2.8's use TWO oil pressure sensors. One is the fuel pump safety switch, one is for the idiot light. Both are by the oil filter. Remove the sensor with ONE wire going to it!! That one-wire sensor is for the idiot light. The two-wire sensor is for the fuel pump safety switch.

(And I'll restate this for those that don't know, the fuel pump safety switch is for the safety of the passenger, not the safety of the engine. If your oil pressure drops to 0, this switch does NOT stop your fuel pump. What does it do? It's there as a backup to the fuel pump relay. If the relay dies, and the engine has oil pressure, this safety switch keeps the pump running. Don't believe me? Try it. Unplug that two-wire sensor with your engine running. The engine won't die- unless, of course, your fuel pump relay is bad.)

 

Thanks TomP, Good Info. I saw Summits Pod on the 'a' Pillar, it's loks good, but I want 3 gauges, so I'll go under the middle AC Vent I think.