I ended up buying some Autometer gauges to replace the old set. The oldies were pretty beat and didn’t light evenly so out they went. Good thing I did, found a problem at the oil filter adapter. The engine has been using a bit more oil than I want it to but most of the engine is pretty dry and it’s not burning it. I knew it was wet down by the adapter but when I got under there close up,,,,, jeeeez. I don’t have any huge puddles in the driveway so I felt like all was fine. Wrong. I guess it was pushing it out under pressure and just a drip or to in the driveway when it was off.
The reason I was down there is the new gauges have there own senders so I replaced the old ones. Impossible to get the new taller oil sender on without taking the adapter off so I dove under. The damn adapter was maybe a bit more than finger tight. And orange silicone was everywhere. I thought they had just not used a gasket and slather orange crap in there to make a gasket. Worse, there was half a gasket left that they didn’t bother to scrape off then silicone around it.
Not only that, the filter was on so hard that it broke my filter wrench. I had to take off the adapter with the filter still on then put it in my vise and ram a big screwdriver through it. Finally got it off and the filter O ring stuck to the adapter. They didn’t bother to lube the ring.
Anyway I cleaned everything up and put a new gasket on. All is well and the new oil gauge shows more pressure than the old one. Once I get the bezel back from restoration I’ll show you what it looks like with the gauges up there. It’s kinda cool. Oh I did cut off the little circles of black out in the interior tin bezel that covers the speedo and gauges. But I don’t think I’ll try to do any more to it. If I can find another I’ll mess with it more.