I think he wants a round cable Dan so he can route it through the car easier... I could be competely wrong though

 

You are correct. I was hoping to keep the multimeter itself under the passenger seat and just mount the display on the radio door. I can't see an easy way to run a ribben cable that's 2" wide without folding it or bending it all out of shape. A wiring bundle like a telephone line but with 20 wires inside would be better, but it would seem that soldering this to extend the cable won't be easy.

 

You only need a few feet?

Get a 6-foot printer cable. 25 lines right there. Need more, get a SCSI cable - 50 wires.

These are round, some can get pretty thin too.

 

Not to sound like an idiot here, but how often do you look at this gauge? I can't imagine having to continuously monitor your diff temp while driving. looks to me like it would fit fine inside the glove box.. maybe you could make a mount for it in the glove box with an extended cord so you could put it in/on your cupholder while driving, or leave it in there and just check the temp at stoplights or between autoX runs or whatever. But then I am pretty lazy and am usually looking for an 'easy' solution.
But then so was the guy who invented the remote control
I also imagine there has to be a temp measurement/display setup available commercially that would be much closer to what you want for mounting on the radio door.
Good Luck!

Cheers, Mike

 

If you want cheap and non-prepackaged, by some phone cable, strip the outer insulation, and bundle a bunch of the wires together wrapped in electrical tape. It's about as small as you'll be able to get without finding a custom cable.

The only issue I see at this point is mounting the wires to the LCD diplay if the only connection to it is the zebra strip.

 

Thanks to all for taking the time to work your neurons on this one.

Rworne, yes, I only need to get the display a few feet from the main unit. However, I'm not sure how to connect up the wires in the printer cable to extend a ribbon type cable.

CaptainMike, as you can see from my first few posts, I already have a gauge mounted in my cupholder. If nothing else, I could just dremel out some plastic so the gauge can sit lower. Then I can shut the door. And no, I don't need to look at it constantly but it's nice to know what it says at inconvenient moments to have to dig it out of a hiding place. If I weren't going with the existing gauge, mounting it on the radio door was my next choice. The instrument is wired to a 9 volt converter and rigged to come on with ignition - no fuss, no muss.

MacGyver, I too, see getting around those Zebra strips as a difficult obstacle for me.

I like the huge numbers in the display on my new gauge but I think I'll get out the dremel to put the old one inside the cupholder. I can still use the new instrument as a multimeter in my garage.

 

Hi Xviper,

Now that this thread seems to have wound down a bit, I'm curious.

What kind of temps does your diff usually run? I know you're car is supercharged, do you often drive it in ways that would tend to make the rear end run hotter than normal? Have you ever monitored tranny temps too?

Thanks!

Drive Safe,
Steve R.

 

Steve, I occasionally "excercise" my car but on the most part I don't beat on it daily. I do clutch drop launches from time to time and I do redline shifts a couple times a week.
In day to day city driving in the summer months, the diff temps run around 40 to 50 degrees C. If I were to do a redline run through the first 3 gears on such a day, the temps can climb another 10 to 15 degrees after such an event.
On the highway after some steady cruising, the temps stabilize around 65 to 70 degrees (again during summer) and can go close to 90 degrees after a high speed passing manouver. I should mention that I've installed additional cooling fins on my diff casing, however, their effects are minimal since they are so thin.

I have not monitored tranny temps since there is a pump that circulates the fluid and most failures have been reported in the diff.

 

xv,

Been thinking about those fins... thin isn't necessarilly your issue since you are more concerned with convection cool (the wind passing over them doing the heatsinking) rather than conduction (the mass of the fins doing the actual heatsinking). You may get better results if you're able to pass more air over them, or better yet, cooler air from the side of the vehicle. A good portion of the air hitting those fins has passed through/by the hot engine bay... that will reduce your cooling potential.

Time for some more ductwork?

 

When I first put on those fins, I thought about some ductwork, but if you saw what kinds of streets I drive down in the middle winter, you'd understand why I held off. Any ductwork I install under there can't compromise ground clearance.