[deucemac]

I have used and sold Stewart Warner gauges since 1962 until I retired several years ago. What was once the standard has sadly degenerated to basic junk. When I built my roadster in 2007, I used some old stock that I kept after I stopped selling. They were 1990 era and performed very well, however, I had a space problem fitting a speedometer cable to the transmission I used. I installed a new deluxe electric speedometer and a Classic Instruments Sky Drive. Everything went well until 4000 miles when the speedometer decided to have a brain tumor and wave wildly or just shut down. All the while the odometer worked perfectly. I tried Stewart Warner's tech line and never got anyone to answer. I talked to several jobbers and W/D ' s I used to deal with and to a man they all said "good luck". They have gotten very uneasy selling the current product due to failures and virtually no support. I went to SEMA 2 years ago and talked to the reps personally and was told that after using their gauges for 50 years, I didn't know how to install them. Needless to say, a heated argument ensued. Last year a new engineer was there along with the jerk from the year before. The old guy denied he even talked to me and the new guy offered to replace the speedometer. I dealt with the new guy. When the new speedometer arrived, I installed it and waited until good weather started. Meanwhile back at the clown factory, I was informed that a rare failure had occurred in the odometer and they had never seen that happen before. Warm weather dawned and out I went with the new unit and it performed perfectly until 100 miles out, when the odometer stopped! I called the engineer and got a surprised response from him and a high tech repair technique. Give a sharp rap on the gauge. Yep, super high tech to me. I used the soft rubber grip on a cane to perform this complicated procedure to no avail. I drove it for a couple of months and 2 weeks ago my daughter's from Washington state visited so out we go for a ride in the roadster. I tried the ultra high tech manuver from the factory. And VOILA! The odometer comes to life! Miracles still happen I guess. This last weekend my son and I drove the car down to the LA Roadsters Father's Day show. A 180 mile drive each way. Well much to my surprise, they moved Pomona lots closer to Tehachapi! After all a fine instrument like my new speedometer could not be wrong. From a starting mileage of 117 miles, we traveled what used to be a 360 mile round trip to the accurately calibrated and perfectly functioning odometer reading of 208 miles stated on the odometer. My advice to you would be to find older Stewart Warner gauges that are still functioning and use them. It is so sad to the best gauges reduce themselves from top notch to "hole fillers". I talked to Classic and they can recreate the font of Stewart Warner and use my initials instead of SW. Plus give a 7 years unconditional warranty. I must have installed /sold over a thousand Stewart Warner gauges in my life but no more. Incidentally, they have been sold out and the gauges are no longer USA made.