Installing Lehman Power Instrument Panel

[detmcpat]

I have a 1978 Albin 33 with Ford Lehman 120. It is a dual station boat. I bought it last fall from from a looper who had just closed the loop in MI. I'm wanting to install new Lehman Power instrument panels. Most of the old ones work but are pretty old and may even be original. Assuming all the current wiring is correct (and that's a big if) is this simply a matter of unplugging the old gauges and plugging in the new ones? I thought about replacing the sending units as well. I just don't know if this is a plug and play scenario or if new gauges require some other conversion in order for them to work properly. I hope this is enough information to get started.

 

[Choices]

Should be the same, mine were.

 

[detmcpat]

Thanks. did you use the original senders?

 

[socalrider]

I don't know how much you'll gain by replacing all of the gauges - if they work I'd not touch them. Most likely you'd not want the same wiring for the ammeters anyway - it sends the entire alternator output through the gauge panels, which is not ideal.

 

[C lectric]

As mentioned you do not want the old style ammeters as the wiring , for the meters, must carry all the alternator output current in heavy wire.

For the ammeters I would suggest using a HALL EFFECT SENSOR and an ammeter that can read it. That way the wiring is very light and two ammeters could read it, one for the main station and one for the bridge. THe current is usually in the milliamp range.

If the existing guages work why bother. Sure, check that they are reasonably accurate.
I think I would add some alarms for loss of raw water flow and exhaust overtemp, and so on. For the tachs get a handheld digital phototach from Ebay or Amazon for about $20 to $30 and use that to check the tachs and make a table of inaccuracies.
For temperatures the same goes, get a digital thermometer. Just understand about the reading limits as that can affect their abilities. A Flat Black spot is preferred as a reading point. Lots of folk think shooting all over the place is useful. NOT. You are often looking for comparative shots engine to engine or on a single comparative shots under very similar circumstances or operation. One biggie is the thermostat , another is the temp guage sensor base.

Just my thoughts

 

[detmcpat]

As mentioned you do not want the old style ammeters as the wiring , for the meters, must carry all the alternator output current in heavy wire.

For the ammeters I would suggest using a HALL EFFECT SENSOR and an ammeter that can read it. That way the wiring is very light and two ammeters could read it, one for the main station and one for the bridge. THe current is usually in the milliamp range.

If the existing guages work why bother. Sure, check that they are reasonably accurate.
I think I would add some alarms for loss of raw water flow and exhaust overtemp, and so on. For the tachs get a handheld digital phototach from Ebay or Amazon for about $20 to $30 and use that to check the tachs and make a table of inaccuracies.
For temperatures the same goes, get a digital thermometer. Just understand about the reading limits as that can affect their abilities. A Flat Black spot is preferred as a reading point. Lots of folk think shooting all over the place is useful. NOT. You are often looking for comparative shots engine to engine or on a single comparative shots under very similar circumstances or operation. One biggie is the thermostat , another is the temp guage sensor base.

Just my thoughts

Thanks for the input guys. As it turns out, all the gauges on the bridge work properly. the main helm station has issues. the water temp is off about 15 degrees and the hour meter is no longer working. Previous owner reported it stopped working half way through the loop (roughly 500 hours missing). The Lehman Power Instrument Panels I'm looking at have volt meters so I think I'm going to close the circuits on the ammeters and remove them. I think then it might simply be a matter of swapping the wiring from old gauges to new gauges. I'm pretty sure the temp and oil senders are dual station. I get what you're saying about using the old gauges but they are very unsightly as are the panels they're mounted in. If I run into some unforeseen anomaly, I'll post the details so others can avoid the same issues.

 

[Comodave]

The senders may or may not different. I just replaced all my gauges and had to replace the temp and oil pressure senders.

As to the temp being off a bit so what? Just know where the temp is normally and if it moves off that mark check the engine.

 

[Nepidae]

Call Brian at American Diesel and talk to him. He will probably have all the parts you will need including the senders. Americandieselcorp.com

His dad was responsible for the building of the Ford Lehman engine and Brian sat at his knee.

He is the only expert.