M38 gauges

buzzshipman · Post by **buzzshipman** » Thu Feb 28, 2013 8:06 pm

I am working on a M38 for a friend of mine and we are trying to restore it back to original as we can get. The one thing we want to do is we are going to be changing it to 12 volt for the ease of jumping and that is what he wants. I was wondering if anyone made repo gauges that look original but are 12 volt. I have restored 3 older jeeps but this is my first military so I'm sure I will be posting a lot to get help and answers.

Thanks,
Kevin

Post by **wesk** » Thu Feb 28, 2013 9:20 pm

No repops for AC and SW electric gauges in 12 volt that I know of. You will have a few issues to resolve.

water temp and oil pressure are best to go with direct reading mechanical type gauges. Buy good quality, with black faces and you can paint the bezels OD if needed.

Amp meter I would switch to a volt meter. If you are using a 12 volt alternator then the switch to a volt meter is a natural one. I say this because I have never been a great fan of the amp meter and especially an amp meter that is not a shunt type and carries the full system load through it. Again, you can paint bezel OD and try to get a black face close in appearance to the others.

Fuel gauge is a tough one. You will have to buy a 12 volt unit with the correct matching 12 volt sender. I have not seen any of the aftermarket senders match the bolt pattern in the tank but that's not that difficult to resolve. Again paint bezels OD and try to keep black faces similar in appearance.

I would secure a quality fuel gauge first since there are few to pick from then shop for the other three trying to keep their appearance as close as possible to each other. The volt meter will be the easiest to find so save it for last. Don't forget to measure the length you'll need for the water temp capillary tube. The oil pressure I would personally look for one with a brass or steel nipple so you can use metal tubing instead of nylon tubing.

buzzshipman · Post by **buzzshipman** » Fri Mar 01, 2013 4:49 am

Thanks Wes. That is what my plans were. He has a CJ gas tank and doesn't want to buy a correct one right now or ever so getting the fuel sender is going to be easy. I was going the route of just getting regular gauges just wanted to see if they were made. I'm also in the same opion as you on the amp to volt gauge. Volt gauge much better because I am switching to an alternator. The weird part about this jeep is someone back in the day has converted it to 6 volt.

Bretto · Post by **Bretto** » Fri Mar 01, 2013 5:33 am

SW 82309 is a pretty good looking voltmeter that has the appearance of a 24v ammeter.
These are mine in 12v. Oil and temp are mechanical. All are run of the mill repops except the volt guage.

BullRun · Post by **BullRun** » Fri Mar 01, 2013 6:21 pm

Hi Bretto... are any of your gauges illuminated from behind the gauge panel by the red lenses like the 24 volt originals?

Bretto · Post by **Bretto** » Sat Mar 02, 2013 7:16 am

Just the speedo. Non of the others have the light windows. Down the road, I plan on doing something about that though.

BullRun · Post by **BullRun** » Sun Mar 03, 2013 10:31 am

Thanks Bretto! Really appreciate the information.

Here's the interesting part to my question... on Friday I talked to the current owners of Stewart Warner about getting new guages for my M38.

While going through some old M38/M38A1 gauge panels I found what appears to be a Stewart Warner military fuel gauge in 12 volts! This panel came off an M38A1 I have been restoring. It has the illumination slots on the back just like the 24 volt versions. Since my M38 was converted to 12 volts years ago. It might be an interesting option to keep it going.

Stewart Warner is going to see if they can match it to one of their sets still in production. It might be from a set of industrial equipment guages. If still in production it potentially would allow correctly illuminated guages in 12 volts. It looks just like the originals. But yea, it's a long shot...

Summit Racing carries Stewart Warner gauges. The Standard and Deluxe guages look very similar to originals.

BullRun · Post by **BullRun** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 9:15 pm

So I have not been able to get an answer from the current owners of Stewart Warner about NOS 12 volt military guages if what I found is a military guage.

To simplify things I decided to back to an original 24 volt system.

See new thread....