Actually I think gauges are very useful to avoid major problems...not so
much for other stuff, but for knowing when something has gone dreadfully
wrong, suddenly....or when you are developing a 'problem' that may be
corrected with a minor fix, thereby avoiding a catastrophic event with your
vehicle.

  The actual numbers or gauge-watching isn't really The Thing...it is more
about the 'normal' indication of the instrument...

When you know your oil temp...say....normally runs at around 200f but you
check the gauge and see it indicating 280 or 300f, you know you have
something 'not normal' happening in there and you can do something about it
...   or you can ignore it if you think 'so what, I can't do anything about
THAT'....

  A common practice with gauges in racecars is to orient the gauges so that
all the needles point straight up during normal operation of the vehicle.
Then, a quick glance at the bank of gauges will tell you if you need to
even look more closely....if a needle is 'off' you can pick that up quickly
with a visual scan.   I know, it bothers some people's sense of 'rightness'
to have a gauge 'twisted around' in the dash so that it is rotated with the
zero way counterclockwise, but it makes it easy to detect possible problems
at a glance.

  Warning lights are limited to "good" "not good" and won't give you any
more information than the engineer who specified it's range decided you
need to know.   Now they give us the wonderfull "Check Engine" light on
newer cars, which means "Grab your credit car and your Smart Phone, call
the Flatbed and take your rig to the dealer to have the engine checked"
when perhaps you have a loose wire to some sensor somewhere that could
easily be fixed with a twist of a screwdriver or a squeeze of the pliers...

On Wed, May 9, 2012 at 9:21 AM, Stuart MacMillan <stuartmacm@gmail.com>wrote:

> I installed a nice VDO oil pressure gauge on my '84, and it was great!  I
> knew for quite a while that the engine was on its last legs, but I blew it
> up anyway.  Fat lot of good that gauge was.  I've finally learned not to
> bother with gauges anymore.  I should have learned that much earlier when I
> had an oil temp gauge on my '68 Westy.  I watched that puppy go up to over
> 280 degrees on trips in hot weather (sender was in the sump plate), and
> that
> was before synthetic oils were widely available.  That rig never failed me
> though, and the gauge was just something to worry about.
>
>
>
> Stuart
>
>
>
> '85 Westy
>