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Wedge TR8 new oil pressure unit and gauge, HELP

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cooptr6

cooptr6

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I am working on a friends 1980 carb TR8. He would like an oil pressure gauge and purchased one from VBP. It is a electrical gauge with an electrical sending unit. The problems comes with the sending unit. The TR8 unit has 3 wires, which one is an ignition cut off, the new unit has 1 hook up. Is there someplace else to hook up the unit, or a way to by-pass the other 2 wires?
 
isn't there some kind of "t" fitting you can use to allow use of both sending units?
 
All my '80 TR8 has is an oil low-pressure light--no gauge came on these cars. I checked the wiring diagram in my Haynes manual for a 1980 carburetted USA model (which I assume applies to the TR7 and TR8). The oil low-pressure light has one white/brown wire that attaches to the oil-pressure sending unit. The sending unit has 3 wires, as you said. The one already mentioned goes to the light, one "slate"/white wire goes to ignition, and one white/purple wire goes to the anti-run-on valve.

How many wires does your new gauge have? Maybe the sending unit is designed to connect only to the gauge and the gauge connects to the ignition. But then how does the sending unit get its power?

When you figure it out, let us all know. I would like to replace my clock with an oil pressure gauge since the clock doesn't work and I never use the clock in a car anyway.
 
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isn't there some kind of "t" fitting you can use to allow use of both sending units?

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I think that this would be the best solution. There are many industrial supply houses which stock thousands of different fittings. Check the Yellow Pages.

If you were to take the existing parts & the new part to one of the suppliers & explain what you want to accomplish, they would be happy to help you find the parts to do the job. You DO need to take the parts so that threads etc. can be matched up.

Check the TIFCO Houston catalog page 38 for a couple of examples. https://www.tifco.com/cat/ISection.pdf

Good luck,
D
 
When I purchased my TR8, they had an extra oil gauge set up with the "t" fitting. You should be able to get this fitting from your local hardware store.
 
The T fitting will work for a mechanical gauge. Screw the T into the block, the presssure unit into the second part of the T and the oil line to the mechanical gauge into the third part. I have not seen an electrical gauge used.
 
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I guess I will look into the T-fitting

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Rimmer Brothers has a "T" fitting designed specifically for the TR7/TR8 oil pressure gauge conversion. See it at:

"https://www.rimmerbros.co.uk/cgi-bin/rimmer?findpart&PartID=RX1352&Page=tr7/electrical"

The cost is $10.37.
 
Coop,

I have a mechanical oil pressure gauge on my TR8. I did use a "t" that can be had at any parts house that has a good selection of fittings. You simply need to take threaded items with you so you can match up everything. There is nothing that would stop you from doing the same with an electric oil pressure gauge. Same deal with the fittings, but you would have to do your own wiring for the gauge you selected, and that would probably be seperate from the factory wiring. It's actually fairly simple, but DOES take some time to get right.
 
The T-fitting worked great.
Had to use an elbow to find room for the new sending unit, but everything works.

Thanks
 
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