Hey everyone,

Long time no post. I've been away from the car and the board for a while, and the first thing I try and do I have a problem.

I'm in the middle of putting in a new instrument panel. I bought all new Autometer Phantom gages. I went with an electric instead of mechanichal oil pressure gage for easier hook up. Long story short I went to put the sending unit on the block yesterday and there's major interference with the intake manifold preventing installation of the sender. I went to the hardware store and bought a nipple and a coupler, but that makes the unit is then too tall to install. It hits the distrubutor. I have a thought of getting a 45 or 90 elbow to install on the nipple, but I don't want to do something stupid. I don't know if the sender works correctly if it's tipped or on it's side. I'm guessing it will be fine, but if someone's already done this I'd like to know things will be fine before I do it.

Also, I'm wondering if brass pipe fittings are ok or if I should go with steel or stainless fittings. I don't want differential expansion to cause the thing to loosen up or dissmilar metals to cause corrosion.

Also, when I bought the car it had an old Sun mechanical gage. When I pulled the fitting out of the old motor there was no sign of teflon tape on the threads, so when I put the ZZ4 in I didn't tape the threads. Should I tape the fittings before installing them? I guess there could be an issue with a bit of tape coming off and plugging the sended. It has a rather small hole. I just don't want to not be able to get the thing apart in the future if I have to. I guess the fact that I got the old fitting out after several years means it shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks for any help in advance.

Steve

i just did that to mine i used a 45 and it works fine

Thanks Mike.

Did you use Brass or steel? Did you use teflon tape or bare threads?

Steve

don't use bare threads and don't use the tape (to much of a pain in the rear) get the liquid stuff, just fill the threads and screw her down. You can find the liquid stuff in most hardware stores i usually find in the air hose coupling section

Thanks for the tip on the liquid. Never seen it before.

Thanks for the tip on the liquid. Never seen it before.
It's often called "pipe dope" if that helps. I used tape, but the dope is a bit nicer to use.