[DeTomaso] Installing Oil Temp gauge ...

jderyke at aol.com jderyke at aol.com
Sun Jan 3 17:08:36 EST 2010


In a message dated 1/3/10 11:23:36 AM, eanderson at geotracinternational.com 
writes:

> Could you explain in greater detail (and possibly reference some online 
> pictures) regarding how to locate the ring gear position and install the 
> temp sensor on the ZF?  Sounds like a good POCA article to me!
> 
Well,   I wrote a few paragraphs describing my installation back in the Aug 
'06 Newsletter. Possibly high ZF lube temp was a rumour I was curious 
about, but road-testing showed it not to be very important for street Panteras. A 
450-mile run to 'Vegas across the Nevada desert showed a slow temp gain to 
a peak of only 180F after 3 full hours on the road at 80-120 mph. During a 
full-bore Silver Stare open road event, one might be able to see 'over 210F' 
but I suspect it would take a LeMans-length run to justify a pump & 
diff-cooler (like if the lube ever got to 250F or higher). Because the max temp I 
found on a 100F day was barely enough to push condensation out of the ZF, I 
never bothered to write any more about it.

As mounted in the Pantera, ZFs have their ring gear mounted on the LEFT 
side of the cases, so the pinion gear meshes slightly to the right of center of 
the case, about 2/3 of the way up from the bottom. I chose to drill and tap 
a hole for a 1/4" SAE pipe thread about half-way up the right side as far 
forward as possible, to allow the sensor to protrude into lube at what I 
figured would be the hottest area without the ring gear shrouding the sensor. 

With electric gauges, you can run as many sensors as you'd like, with each 
sensor connected individually to a single gauge via a selector switch. Thus 
one only needs to mount a single gauge for lots of sensors, making the 
cockpit less cluttered. I used an aircraft rotary switch, but a 3-position toggle 
would work, too.
Bottom line? It's interesting but not very important on a street car. My 
2¢- J DeRyke



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