okay, heres one for ya's. I have a second set of gauges for the 59 that i got from the 59 in tillsonburg. I was originally going to buy one of those little gauge clusters and stick it under the dash or make a middle console and put it in there. Now, i took the one gauge and fiddled around with it and put the oil pressure and temp gauge from the trans am in the middle. Let me post some pics in a minute and show you what i mean. Its the gauge on the right. have to wait for some paint to dry before i take a pic of the "fiddled with" one. Ok, heres the back of the trans am gauge of which im not sure if i can wire it up, and a pic of the front where i replaced the middle (which was just a blank peice basically) with the gauge.

-- Edited by 59poncho at 20:21, 2009-02-06

-- Edited by 59poncho at 21:04, 2009-02-06

thx carl, that makes it easier to see. Now do you guys know what im asking, because i just read it again and i rambled a bit!!

can i just run new wires to the trans am temp gauge, and how and were do you hook up an oil pressure unit. My car doesent have one so i have to put one in, but where on a 59-283?

The gauge looks pretty good with the TA unit inside. Since the car has a warning light for oil pressure there has to be a sending unit on the engine now, usually at the rear of the intake manifold beside the distributor. The oil pressure sending unit for gauges is pretty standard across years. You could start with Borg Warner S769 which is what is in my small block.

Todd and I did this last year and discussed on this thread:

http://canadianponcho.activeboard.com/index.spark?forumID=118110&p=3&topicID=19133625

As far as wiring goes I think you just wire to the terminal posts on the gauges, one is ground and one positive. Some of those posts are for fastening the gauge to the Trans Am dash housing.

thanks 73, thats perfect. I just wasent sure if it would wire up normally since the t.A gauges were all connected to a circuit board type unit with one main wireing harness ,but it does have the posts there to wire them so it should be fine, only one way to find out. If it was just a little warmer out. Getting that gauge to fit was a bit of a pain and a little cutting but it looks almost factory, except i wish they were reversed so the temp was on top and oil on the bottom. Oh well.

The circuit board is just a way to wire the gauges. My LeMans gauges are the same as Firebird ones and I have tested fuel and temp gauges just by wiring them at the posts and attaching them to the sending units with a proper ground. If you have the original circuit board you could trace the post to the power and ground since the ground is usually a common run to all the various gauges in a cluster. I just thought about something else, you need the sending unit for the Firebird 1970 to 1981 (your gauge looks like a later type face) which I think you will find is the one I posted. I thnk Firebirds started to get Chevy motors in 77/78 so there may even be a listing for the sending unit. Try to have the parts man look up a 78 Formula 350 with gauge package.




-- Edited by 73SC at 12:31, 2009-02-07

its a 81 t.a. and i have the 305 sitting here still, i'll have to go take a look and see if the sending unit is on there.

59poncho wrote:

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its a 81 t.a. and i have the 305 sitting here still, i'll have to go take a look and see if the sending unit is on there.

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Wow, sometimes I even impress myself. "Firebird 1970 to 81, later type face, Chevy engine sending unit" ........ 

you are one smart cookie!! Thats why i love this site, all the smart people to help us less fortunate!!