To
@1WildRT @340sFastback and any others who seem to be getting stuck on what some might consider to be my "throwing stones" at the original gauge design and emphatically purporting the aftermarket replacements to be vastly superior (none of which is what I said)...
1. I qualified my statement about the original
electrical design as "debatably questionable". The Chrysler engineers did what they needed to do at the time to deal with the conversion from 6V to 12V and not reinvent the wheel. I get that. But I hope you all realize we are talking about 50-60 year old tech and that there have been a few improvements to the technology and design since, right?
2. It would be difficult in said debate to get around the simple fact that the points-style voltage regulator that is built into the fuel gauge and that also supplies a reduced voltage to the oil and temp gauges was/is a time bomb waiting to go off that in most cases ends up smoking all three gauges when it fails. Yes, many of them have survived the intervening 50-60 years, but there are plenty of examples of those that did not, and the failure has nothing to do with abuse or neglect. This is an issue that has thread upon thread in this forum discussing how to bypass that archaic regulator with a discreet solid-state equivalent that will feed the gauges a stable and reliable voltage without fear of destroying all of them at some point. The fix involves carefully opening the original fuel gauge and
disabling the original regulator, hopefully without damaging the gauge. These replacement gauges have dealt with all of that.
3. Given that A bodies are pretty much treated like the red headed step children of Mother Mopar when it comes to the availability of aftermarket replacement parts for damaged or worn out original parts, one would think that the
only supplier of some gauge options that look like the originals but incorporate some modern remedies to those olden day tech pitfalls might be welcomed rather than assailed.
4. The issue I may have helped uncover with the aftermarket gauges is a
mechanical design issue (apples and oranges) that might
sometimes cause a fitment problem that the manufacturer was not even aware of because they purchased the design and build process from the original designer and no one before me had complained. That must mean that everyone else who has bought them was reasonably happy with the purchase. In my experience, these replacement gauges work electrically as well or better than the originals in terms of accuracy and durability. This manufacturer has spent a great deal of time assessing the fitment issue and looking for ways to not only resolve my immediate issue (with gauges I bought a year ago and let sit in the boxes), but also to try to improve their product going forward for future purchasers.
I'm not sure how any of ^that^ is me criticizing the manufacturer of the cars we all love and selling out to the aftermarket. If the aftermarket for the reproduction of original parts that are no longer available didn't exist, so would not a good many of our cars.
