I recently purchased an autometer electric oil pressure gauge, and it says to connect the sender to the gauge with 18 gage twin conductor wire. what is twin conductor wire? I lost the installation page, so it might not be exactly twin conductor, but it's twin (a word that starts with "c").

I just bought some regular copper wire. Can I use this?

Thanks.

Ryan

 

Use regular 18 or 16 gauge wire, if you can find it with extra insulation. The reason for having a wire that is over insulated is to avoid electromagnetic interfearence and have the gauge read incorrectly. At least I have never had a problem with using regular wire and gauge sender units. I just try to run the wire away from others and large electrical currents (the ignition, starting and charging system wires).

 

Twin conductor wire is two wires in one. Like a lamp cord.

 

I thought twin conductor wire might be 2 differen't strands of wire, but I got to thinking why I would use that. There's only one connection on the sending unit, so they would both be carrying the same current. Oh well. I'll just use what I got and see if it works.

It's not extra insulated, but it doesn't look like it will be by any other wires. Thanks.

Ryan

 

That would be Litz wire, and I doubt that you'll find that on any vehicle.