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Trim gauge question.

zx14

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So the electric Eliminator trim gauge in my 03 shit the bed a few weeks back, I have no idea what brand they are, I put in a new auto meter trim gauge, it works, but damn compared to the oem, it’s reaction is super slow, like 5 second delay, and then moves so damn slow too..
Any of you experienced this? I bought the correct ohms for the application, I think the fact that it works proves this, but it’s really to slow.
I would like to put in a mechanical, but dash Realestate is not available.
Put it up to lessons learned and replace with a livorsi?.
 

LazyLavey

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Problems at the other end? Trim sender or limit switch

Mine went bizarre last season, thought it was the gauge, limit switch was going bad
 

Orange Juice

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Most trim sending units start to fail at 15 years. I’ve replaced mine Twice.
Still using the original VDO gauges Eliminator used in the 1980’s.
 

77charger

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Trim sender is prob going out the wire usually breaks at the trim switch. I didn’t feel like getting another so I took it off took it apart replaced with wire and a new terminal end sealed it up put back together soldered wires back together that go through hull added shrink wrap and silicone.

been good for a couple of years so far. I know new would be better but damn it’s not a simple job to properly replace them either.
 

zx14

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Old gauge, turn on ignition, huuuummmmm, needle stuck at top. Started trouble shoot at sender, I forget the ohm, but smooth sweep as you turn it..install new auto meter, all works as it should, just slow.
 

SS-C

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Hi zx14,

I just read your post and OH MY, what a coincidence!

I am going through this exact same problem with Autometer Pro-Comp marine gauges as we speak! My trim gauge is doing exactly the same thing as yours. In fact, after I read your post I just had to register here on River Dave’s so I could comment.

You have not done anything wrong; my gauge is slower than molasses too! As far as I’m concerned it’s basically worthless since it does not read in real time. You have to wait for the gauge to play catch-up with the actual real position of the outdrive. This is BS and can cause serious problems with potential accidental over trimming of the outdrive.

This has been boggling my mind when I first installed this gauge. Couldn’t understand what was causing this, started driving me crazy. After all, how hard can this be, seriously, 3 connections to make it work and they are the exact same connections as my old (Faria) gauge which by the way works perfectly. The only reason for changing them is to up-grade the looks of my dashboard. I have all new Autometer Pro-Comp marine gauges to replace my existing, but this problem has stopped me dead in my tracks from doing so. If this trim gauge won’t work because of a compatibility issue, then I will not follow through with changing them all out. I do not want a mismatch gauge cluster. Yes, I was told this gauge is for Mercruiser, (as you also were probably told) but somehow I’m beginning to think it will never work correctly.

I called the tech support at Autometer and explained the problem I was having. Unfortunately, the person I spoke with (not mentioning names) wasn’t much help. He said he’s been there 32 years and has never heard of any such problem regarding Mercuiser and the particular trim gauge I was using. He did say however, that maybe at some point Mercruiser changed the ohm rating of their sending units and if so, the gauge will never work. The Autometer gauge needs 0-90 ohms to function properly and that is all they make. He then gave me an email address of someone else in the company to see if they may have any ideas. That was several hours ago, haven’t heard anything back yet.

I put the old (Faria) gauge back in and it works perfectly, so I know all the boat wiring is in good shape.

Sorry for the long comment, I just thought you would be interested in what I have learned about this thus far. I am going to get to the bottom of this and will let you all know what I find to be wrong.

Just wonder how many other people have noticed this issue, but just decided to live with it?
 

Shlbyntro

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It's a built in capacitance in the gauge. It's similar to how a fuel gauge works. Ever notice how your fuel gauge needle in just about anything barely moves even though it is telling you proper fuel levels and you know fuel is sloshing around in the tank? There is a built in slow reaction in the gauge to help keep the needle from bouncing/flickering all the time. If it reacts slow, it naturally averages out the flickers and gives you a nice steady needle. Being that almost all electric gauges work based off of a resistance value, they pretty much operate the same whether it be oil psi, fuel level, temp, trim, etc. (Resistance values do vary from gauge to gauge of course)

Some brands build that slow reaction into all their gauges and some don't, there's not really much you can do about it aside from try a different brand gauge.
 
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SS-C

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I understand the dampening feature of the gauges, but this is excessive. It is so extreme that when you trim the outdrive up/down, or anywhere in between is complete guess work. When you hit the button, you must stop, wait for the gauge to react to see where you’re at, bump it again, wait and see and so on until you’re happy with the trim angle. Yes, I know how to trim my boat without watching a gauge, but it’s nice to quickly lock in the known sweet spot by a simple glance at the gauge while it’s happening in real time.

I’m beginning to think the tech support guy I talked with at Autometer may have a point. He said Mercruiser may have changed the ohm values of their senders. If this is true, then this could be the reason for the inaccurate slow reacting needle pointer.

Also, if this is true, then why wouldn’t Autometer be aware of this change, or are they? Hell, they sell thousands of gauges for Mercruiser applications.

I know this sounds highly unlikely, but it has crossed my mind after trying to sort this out, do you think it possible the trim gauges they make are of the wrong ohm values for Mercruiser?

If any of you here happen to know the ohm values for the Mercruiser trim sending units, that would be a big help and solve this issue!
 

Shlbyntro

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I understand the dampening feature of the gauges, but this is excessive. It is so extreme that when you trim the outdrive up/down, or anywhere in between is complete guess work. When you hit the button, you must stop, wait for the gauge to react to see where you’re at, bump it again, wait and see and so on until you’re happy with the trim angle. Yes, I know how to trim my boat without watching a gauge, but it’s nice to quickly lock in the known sweet spot by a simple glance at the gauge while it’s happening in real time.

I’m beginning to think the tech support guy I talked with at Autometer may have a point. He said Mercruiser may have changed the ohm values of their senders. If this is true, then this could be the reason for the inaccurate slow reacting needle pointer.

Also, if this is true, then why wouldn’t Autometer be aware of this change, or are they? Hell, they sell thousands of gauges for Mercruiser applications.

I know this sounds highly unlikely, but it has crossed my mind after trying to sort this out, do you think it possible the trim gauges they make are of the wrong ohm values for Mercruiser?

If any of you here happen to know the ohm values for the Mercruiser trim sending units, that would be a big help and solve this issue!

Mercruiser did not change the ohm value of their senders. I believe the resistance value is 10-165 ohms but I dont have my books in front of me at the moment so I can't verify. The only major change was when they started using digital trim senders which are 3 wire instead of 2 but a lot of new boats are still being built with analog senders.

I honestly think you just need to return that dumpy Autometer and install a Teleflex gauge
 

SS-C

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Mercruiser did not change the ohm value of their senders. I believe the resistance value is 10-165 ohms but I dont have my books in front of me at the moment so I can't verify. The only major change was when they started using digital trim senders which are 3 wire instead of 2 but a lot of new boats are still being built with analog senders.

I honestly think you just need to return that dumpy Autometer and install a Teleflex gauge
Shlbyntro,

If what you say about the Mercruiser sending unit is true and the ohm value is 10-165, then it’s no wonder I’m having issues. Please correct me if I’m wrong guys, but installing a gauge that requires a sending unit with a range of 0-90 ohm in order to read correctly will not operate properly with a sending unit with a 10-165 ohm range.

Please someone correct me on this, otherwise, these Autometer gauges are being sold to people for use with Mercruiser when in fact they are not compatible for proper operation.

I say this because the Autometer tech support team person told me they only make ONE ohm rating for their trim gauges and that is 0-90.

How F_CKED-UP is that!

Anybody else have these wonderfully wrong “dumpy” gauges on their boat?

My guess is, many of you do and you know what that means…
 

zx14

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I understand the dampening feature of the gauges, but this is excessive. It is so extreme that when you trim the outdrive up/down, or anywhere in between is complete guess work. When you hit the button, you must stop, wait for the gauge to react to see where you’re at, bump it again, wait and see and so on until you’re happy with the trim angle. Yes, I know how to trim my boat without watching a gauge, but it’s nice to quickly lock in the known sweet spot by a simple glance at the gauge while it’s happening in real time.

I’m beginning to think the tech support guy I talked with at Autometer may have a point. He said Mercruiser may have changed the ohm values of their senders. If this is true, then this could be the reason for the inaccurate slow reacting needle pointer.

Also, if this is true, then why wouldn’t Autometer be aware of this change, or are they? Hell, they sell thousands of gauges for Mercruiser applications.

I know this sounds highly unlikely, but it has crossed my mind after trying to sort this out, do you think it possible the trim gauges they make are of the wrong ohm values for Mercruiser?

If any of you here happen to know the ohm values for the Mercruiser trim sending units, that would be a big help and solve this issue!
Thanks SS-C, at least I’m not crazy. I’ve been toying with the thought of stainless Marie’s heads up mechanical, but damn $700, and tear the boat apart. My old gauge was just fine for me until it shit the bad, of course all the “expert” race boat keyboard boaters on here just give me shit, “you boat need a gauge” but like you pointed out, being able to trim strait to that sweet spot.my oldgauge I put a red line on. I would just trim to line line, and knew that was the spot, which was dead nuts level with the running surface, always was the fastest speed. But crap, what the f is wrong with auto meter. I’m thinking of trying a livorci next. But hate to throw more money at it if it does the same thing.
 

SS-C

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Thanks SS-C, at least I’m not crazy. I’ve been toying with the thought of stainless Marie’s heads up mechanical, but damn $700, and tear the boat apart. My old gauge was just fine for me until it shit the bad, of course all the “expert” race boat keyboard boaters on here just give me shit, “you boat need a gauge” but like you pointed out, being able to trim strait to that sweet spot.my oldgauge I put a red line on. I would just trim to line line, and knew that was the spot, which was dead nuts level with the running surface, always was the fastest speed. But crap, what the f is wrong with auto meter. I’m thinking of trying a livorci next. But hate to throw more money at it if it does the same thing.
zx14,

You are welcome; I knew you would appreciate the post. I’m just glad I saw your post because this gauge thing was driving me crazy too! After reading yours, I realized there was something more to this gauge thing than just me over thinking it. What pisses me off is that I have all new of these Pro-Comp marine gauges to replace my Faria, but now, not sure I will. Just the fact their selling the trim gauges for use with Mercruiser really upsets me. Companies that mislead people in such ways are scum. Now, if the gauges came from Harbor Freight, well, I would expect them to be troublesome.

The funny thing is, you and I have noticed this issue only because we changed our gages. We went from a properly functioning gauge (one that operates in real time) to a gauge of different ohm values. The new gauge now of course functions poorly and is basically worthless for our application. Again, why is it marketed for Mercruiser? Just plain WRONG!!

You say Livorsi? Oh, did you know Autometer made the internals of Livorsi gauges and I think others too some years back? Actually, I think I read that somewhere here on River Dave’s.

Wow, thinking about this, that is potentially a lot of boats tooling around with the wrong ohm gauge. Maybe that’s why you hear people say “trim gauges are useless” when referring to ones like ours that are electric.

zx14, just curious, why haven’t you simply replaced your gauge with the same existing one? You were happy with its performance and they would all be of the same manufacture.
 

SoCalDave

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Trim sender is prob going out... I know new would be better but damn it’s not a simple job to properly replace them either.

It can be done without removing any of the outdrive on an I/O. A child with small hands and a couple of modified tools can save you hours on swapping out trim and limit senders.

Wait...is this an OB???
 

zx14

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zx14,

You are welcome; I knew you would appreciate the post. I’m just glad I saw your post because this gauge thing was driving me crazy too! After reading yours, I realized there was something more to this gauge thing than just me over thinking it. What pisses me off is that I have all new of these Pro-Comp marine gauges to replace my Faria, but now, not sure I will. Just the fact their selling the trim gauges for use with Mercruiser really upsets me. Companies that mislead people in such ways are scum. Now, if the gauges came from Harbor Freight, well, I would expect them to be troublesome.

The funny thing is, you and I have noticed this issue only because we changed our gages. We went from a properly functioning gauge (one that operates in real time) to a gauge of different ohm values. The new gauge now of course functions poorly and is basically worthless for our application. Again, why is it marketed for Mercruiser? Just plain WRONG!!

You say Livorsi? Oh, did you know Autometer made the internals of Livorsi gauges and I think others too some years back? Actually, I think I read that somewhere here on River Dave’s.

Wow, thinking about this, that is potentially a lot of boats tooling around with the wrong ohm gauge. Maybe that’s why you hear people say “trim gauges are useless” when referring to ones like ours that are electric.

zx14, just curious, why haven’t you simply replaced your gauge with the same existing one? You were happy with its performance and they would all be of the same manufacture.
Calling Eliminator might be my next move, like you though, I thought I would upgrade frame the stock ones, I ha gaff or livorci, speedo, tach, water pressure, for engine and intercooler, fuel pressure. I thought I was going to go all auto meter because they have that fancy speedo that does everthing. But now????
 

SS-C

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I am going to get to the bottom of this and will let you all know what I find to be wrong.

Hi all, just thought I would update this post to what I’ve learned thus far.

I was finally connected via email with Autometer’s senior sales manager regarding this gauge issue. Of course he claims to have never heard of such issues. He says all their trim gauges are 0-90 ohms and they do not advertise the gauge for Mercury/Mercruiser. He then stated that Mercury has traditionally used a 0-90 ohm sender for many years, so I must have the wrong sender unit installed.

After contacting Mercury Marine by phone and also later via email, tech support informed me and indicated that they only make ONE 2 wire trim level sending unit for a single gauge application and the ohm value is 0-180. The tech team also checked my serial numbers just to confirm my boat does in fact have the correct sender installed, and yes it does.

So, this means the Autometer pro comp marine trim gauge rated at 0-90 ohm is not and never was compatible with the Mercury/Mercriser 0-180 ohm 2 wire senders period!

I shared this Mercury tech support information with Autometer and also shared the fact that their trim gauge is being advertised all over the internet for Mercury/Mercruiser 2 wire senders. Funny thing, after that they never again responded back to my emails.

You may be asking yourself why the hell this guy is making such a big deal about this stupid gauge thing. Well, it seems many people don’t give 2 shits about the trim gauge in their boat, or care if it works properly or not. For me, it’s one I look at all the time and rely on. I guess that’s why I’ve been so adamant about this gauge issue along with the fact it’s been advertised for Mercury/Mercruiser 2 wire senders which is misleading. People have said: Just get rid of that cheap $50 gauge and get something that works! Well, I would except I have close to $1,000 in new Autometer gauges that I’m now stuck with and don’t want to mismatch gauges.

Needless to say, I am very disappointed in Autometer. Them telling me my sender is malfunctioning and/or wrong when it was their gauge that was manufactured wrong and not to Mercury specs, or just flat out misleading advertisments.

Here are just 4 snips from the internet showing the gauge is for Mercury/Mercruiser, also the spec sheet emailed from the Mercury Tech Support Team indicating the sender to be 0-180 ohms.
CP Performance.JPG
Diamond Marine.JPG
Hardin Marine.JPG
Rex Marine.JPG
Mercury Tech Support.png
 

RiverDave

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What would they be selling a trim gauge for if not for Merc Outdrives?

I’d ask auto meter to start making them 0-180? If that is actually what Merc said it was..

I have run so auto meters in most of my boats over the years.. the only boat we ever had that had a trim gauge was Stacy’s spectra with an alpha drive and the gauge worked fine?
 

Boat 405

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My auto meter pro comp marine platinum trim gauge is slow too, and I'm running an scx with external trim puck kit from teague. I'm used to it now. The original beede was super fast.
 

SS-C

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What would they be selling a trim gauge for if not for Merc Outdrives?

Lol... Exactly!

I’d ask auto meter to start making them 0-180? If that is actually what Merc said it was..

I’ve already tried proving to them that the 0-180 is the Merc spec for analog single gauge application.

I have run so auto meters in most of my boats over the years.. the only boat we ever had that had a trim gauge was Stacy’s spectra with an alpha drive and the gauge worked fine?

No, it would have not worked correctly if it was a single analog gauge application.

Autometer only makes one ohm value for all their analog trim gauges and that is 0-90.

Mercury only makes one ohm value for their single gauge analog trim senders and that is 0-180.
 

zx14

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Hi all, just thought I would update this post to what I’ve learned thus far.

I was finally connected via email with Autometer’s senior sales manager regarding this gauge issue. Of course he claims to have never heard of such issues. He says all their trim gauges are 0-90 ohms and they do not advertise the gauge for Mercury/Mercruiser. He then stated that Mercury has traditionally used a 0-90 ohm sender for many years, so I must have the wrong sender unit installed.

After contacting Mercury Marine by phone and also later via email, tech support informed me and indicated that they only make ONE 2 wire trim level sending unit for a single gauge application and the ohm value is 0-180. The tech team also checked my serial numbers just to confirm my boat does in fact have the correct sender installed, and yes it does.

So, this means the Autometer pro comp marine trim gauge rated at 0-90 ohm is not and never was compatible with the Mercury/Mercriser 0-180 ohm 2 wire senders period!

I shared this Mercury tech support information with Autometer and also shared the fact that their trim gauge is being advertised all over the internet for Mercury/Mercruiser 2 wire senders. Funny thing, after that they never again responded back to my emails.

You may be asking yourself why the hell this guy is making such a big deal about this stupid gauge thing. Well, it seems many people don’t give 2 shits about the trim gauge in their boat, or care if it works properly or not. For me, it’s one I look at all the time and rely on. I guess that’s why I’ve been so adamant about this gauge issue along with the fact it’s been advertised for Mercury/Mercruiser 2 wire senders which is misleading. People have said: Just get rid of that cheap $50 gauge and get something that works! Well, I would except I have close to $1,000 in new Autometer gauges that I’m now stuck with and don’t want to mismatch gauges.

Needless to say, I am very disappointed in Autometer. Them telling me my sender is malfunctioning and/or wrong when it was their gauge that was manufactured wrong and not to Mercury specs, or just flat out misleading advertisments.

Here are just 4 snips from the internet showing the gauge is for Mercury/Mercruiser, also the spec sheet emailed from the Mercury Tech Support Team indicating the sender to be 0-180 ohms. View attachment 896802 View attachment 896803 View attachment 896804 View attachment 896806 View attachment 896807
Thanks for all your homework, I agree I use it all the time, but now it’s slow motion. Everybody says put in a mechanical, that is coming from people that already have them, or don’t have a boat, it would be a major pia to do and $$$$. My electric had done me well for years. Now the only fix is to tear my interior out, drill holes in the boat, and drop some more coin.
 

ToMorrow44

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With the different resistance ranges, does your trim gauge read all the way up when the drive is 1/2 way up? In theory, the sender would be at 90ohms at 1/2 trim.

I don’t think the different Ohm range should be related to reaction speed though, it should only affect the accuracy of the gauge.
 

stingray11

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So who makes a trim gauge for a 0 to 180 ohm reading sender?

Sent from my SM-G930VL using Tapatalk
 

SS-C

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With the different resistance ranges, does your trim gauge read all the way up when the drive is 1/2 way up? In theory, the sender would be at 90ohms at 1/2 trim.

Basically yes, the gauge will read fully up when the drive is still hanging down.

I don’t think the different Ohm range should be related to reaction speed though, it should only affect the accuracy of the gauge.

Apparently this phenomenon is related to the difference in ohm values. My original gauge (Faria) works perfectly and its ohm rating is 0-160. I didn’t know any of this until I started replacing the gauge.

The Merc tech I spoke with on the phone said with the differences in ohm values the gauge will definitely overshoot the parameters of the gauge and most likely the reason for the lag time.

When the gauge is connected directly, by passing the sender (no resistance), the needle pointer moves swiftly pegging the needle as it should easily outrunning the speed of the outdrive. When connected to the sender, the needle moves slow as molasses, you have to wait for the needle to play catch-up with the real time position of the outdrive. This to me indicates that the difference in ohm value is the reason for the excessive lag time, but what do I know.
 

zx14

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Basically yes, the gauge will read fully up when the drive is still hanging down.



Apparently this phenomenon is related to the difference in ohm values. My original gauge (Faria) works perfectly and its ohm rating is 0-160. I didn’t know any of this until I started replacing the gauge.

The Merc tech I spoke with on the phone said with the differences in ohm values the gauge will definitely overshoot the parameters of the gauge and most likely the reason for the lag time.

When the gauge is connected directly, by passing the sender (no resistance), the needle pointer moves swiftly pegging the needle as it should easily outrunning the speed of the outdrive. When connected to the sender, the needle moves slow as molasses, you have to wait for the needle to play catch-up with the real time position of the outdrive. This to me indicates that the difference in ohm value is the reason for the excessive lag time, but what do I know.
Did you ever come up with a solution? I was looking into livorce , and they are all 10-90 ohms. So what is the issue? That is the same impedance as the autometer. Why do you, I and a couple others have this slow motion issue?
 
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RiverDave

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Lol... Exactly!



I’ve already tried proving to them that the 0-180 is the Merc spec for analog single gauge application.



No, it would have not worked correctly if it was a single analog gauge application.

Autometer only makes one ohm value for all their analog trim gauges and that is 0-90.

Mercury only makes one ohm value for their single gauge analog trim senders and that is 0-180.

This was a long time ago? I still have the gauges.. maybe they changed something? But the gauge worked normal / it was an alpha drive if that matters
 

zx14

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So I bought a Faria, Amazon,$28. Works perfectly. So we know the wires and sender work fine. WTF is with Auto Meter? I’m calling them in the morning, maybe a bad batch?. I want them to send another one, and if it is the same results, I want to be able to return.
 

SS-C

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Did you ever come up with a solution? I was looking into livorce , and they are all 10-90 ohms. So what is the issue? That is the same impedance as the autometer. Why do you, I and a couple others have this slow motion issue?

Hi zx14,

A solution? Well, no, nothing yet.

What I do know is that Autometer & Lavorsi gauges will never and never ever did work correctly with Mercs 2 wire trim senders period!!

Now, I’m speaking of all Bravo drives with the 2 wire trim sender and analog gauges that have been around for decades.

I made a post here on River Dave’s titled Anyone running Lavorsi gauges with Mercruiser Bravo One?

You (zx14) probably didn’t see it, but it explains why the Lavorsi gauges don’t work correctly with the Merc senders either (but I think you have figured that out).

Oh, Lol… and it’s not just us and a few others having this issue, it’s more like the others just don’t realize it, or how it’s supposed to work. Can you just imagine how many Mercruiser Bravos are out there equipped with Autometer & Lavorsi analog trim gauges? My guess would be hundreds, if not thousands of them over the decades. Most of these boat owners with this set-up probably don’t give two shits about their trim gauge, they don’t use them, don’t rely on them, don’t know if they work right or not, or even care, and there’s good reason for this, IT’S BECAUSE THEY DON’T FRICKIN WORK RIGHT!!

The reality is that this combination cannot & will not work properly, the ohm values just simply do not match up.

This was a long time ago? I still have the gauges.. maybe they changed something? But the gauge worked normal / it was an alpha drive if that matters

Dave, to be honest, I don’t know if the Alpha drive shares the same trim sender as the Bravo.

If however they do and are the same, just that many more boats out there with faulty trim readings!

So I bought a Faria, Amazon,$28. Works perfectly. So we know the wires and sender work fine. WTF is with Auto Meter? I’m calling them in the morning, maybe a bad batch?. I want them to send another one, and if it is the same results, I want to be able to return.

The Faria gauge you bought has the correct ohm value that’s why it works properly. I believe the Faria trim gauge operates between 10-160 ohm. My Faria gauge works perfectly too, but my brand new piece of shit Autometer gauge that was supposedly made and advertised specifically for Mercruiser 2 wire sender does not.

Nothing has changed here on my end with this gauge issue. It’s still a problem for me only because I have about $1,000 worth of Autometer gauges for my boat that I probably will never use now.

If the Lavorsi gauges would have worked I would have went that route, but after conversing with Fred and learning that all their trim gauges are also 10-90 ohm they wouldn’t work the full range with the Merc sender either.

I gave up on this gauge bullshit for the time being as other life issues became more important.

Autometer wasn’t very helpful, a complete disappointment actually.

The way their trim gauges are advertised is very deceitful and misleading.

zx14, please share what you learn when you contact them (Autometer). I would be real curious what kind of info they feed you regarding this issue.
 

zx14

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Hi zx14,

A solution? Well, no, nothing yet.

What I do know is that Autometer & Lavorsi gauges will never and never ever did work correctly with Mercs 2 wire trim senders period!!

Now, I’m speaking of all Bravo drives with the 2 wire trim sender and analog gauges that have been around for decades.

I made a post here on River Dave’s titled Anyone running Lavorsi gauges with Mercruiser Bravo One?

You (zx14) probably didn’t see it, but it explains why the Lavorsi gauges don’t work correctly with the Merc senders either (but I think you have figured that out).

Oh, Lol… and it’s not just us and a few others having this issue, it’s more like the others just don’t realize it, or how it’s supposed to work. Can you just imagine how many Mercruiser Bravos are out there equipped with Autometer & Lavorsi analog trim gauges? My guess would be hundreds, if not thousands of them over the decades. Most of these boat owners with this set-up probably don’t give two shits about their trim gauge, they don’t use them, don’t rely on them, don’t know if they work right or not, or even care, and there’s good reason for this, IT’S BECAUSE THEY DON’T FRICKIN WORK RIGHT!!

The reality is that this combination cannot & will not work properly, the ohm values just simply do not match up.



Dave, to be honest, I don’t know if the Alpha drive shares the same trim sender as the Bravo.

If however they do and are the same, just that many more boats out there with faulty trim readings!



The Faria gauge you bought has the correct ohm value that’s why it works properly. I believe the Faria trim gauge operates between 10-160 ohm. My Faria gauge works perfectly too, but my brand new piece of shit Autometer gauge that was supposedly made and advertised specifically for Mercruiser 2 wire sender does not.

Nothing has changed here on my end with this gauge issue. It’s still a problem for me only because I have about $1,000 worth of Autometer gauges for my boat that I probably will never use now.

If the Lavorsi gauges would have worked I would have went that route, but after conversing with Fred and learning that all their trim gauges are also 10-90 ohm they wouldn’t work the full range with the Merc sender either.

I gave up on this gauge bullshit for the time being as other life issues became more important.

Autometer wasn’t very helpful, a complete disappointment actually.

The way their trim gauges are advertised is very deceitful and misleading.

zx14, please share what you learn when you contact them (Autometer). I would be real curious what kind of info they feed you regarding this issue.
Well......talked to Mike at autometer, he says there is something wrong with my system, never ever heard of a problem like mine. Told him the faria works fine, his response, well you should run that then. Grrrrr.
So for now, I am. I want to update my gauges, and. I really like the auto meter speedo with all the extras it does, but damn, hard to give them my money with their, fuck You attitude.
On a side note, as I research the different brands of mechanicals, I think it’s eddie and 1 other place say right in there description,” are you tired of the floating needle and slow response of your trim gauge” we have the answer. Funny, there is no issue per auto meter, but the industry knows , but doesn’t address it. It’s ez fix, obviously, if a faria $28 gauge works, its not a expensive re-work. I wonder What sender these wrong ohm gauges are designed for, since its not the masses.
Thanks SS-C for your response and homework on this. Happy Boating.
 

02HoWaRd26

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Post a pic of your existing gauges?

Also look into Livorsi, they will custom build you your gauges all your colors etc for a little extra as well they are great to deal with. And no they don’t use Autometer to make their gauges, at one point the did but that is old history.
 

Cole Canadian

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Thanks SS-C, at least I’m not crazy. I’ve been toying with the thought of stainless Marie’s heads up mechanical, but damn $700, and tear the boat apart. My old gauge was just fine for me until it shit the bad, of course all the “expert” race boat keyboard boaters on here just give me shit, “you boat need a gauge” but like you pointed out, being able to trim strait to that sweet spot.my oldgauge I put a red line on. I would just trim to line line, and knew that was the spot, which was dead nuts level with the running surface, always was the fastest speed. But crap, what the f is wrong with auto meter. I’m thinking of trying a livorci next. But hate to throw more money at it if it does the same thing.
Not trying to be a smart ass, but you can set your trim limit switch to your sweet spot and not have to look at the gauge. I rarely look at ours except to make sure it is up for loading.
 

franky

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Other than the slow response, there is nothing wrong with the sender nor whatever gauge you use. Never seen this before. You clock the sender so that full down on the drive (0 ohm) is full down on the gauge. The rest falls in place. I don't care about what the gauge reads other than the bottom 30% of the gauge sweep anyway. You cant run it beyond mid scale anyway at least on any Cole I have owned . My gauges (VDO) dont even start moving until after I lay on the down button for 5 seconds when launching. I know when I get to 9 oclock, OK to start. Trim it all the way down (0) and go. Trim up no farther than 9:00 (mid scale) when going for it. Instant response YMMV Sorry you are having such frustrations. Boating should be fun!
 

franky

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Not trying to be a smart ass, but you can set your trim limit switch to your sweet spot and not have to look at the gauge. I rarely look at ours except to make sure it is up for loading.
This too, the only problem there is you have to use the trailer button to lift the drive above the "sweet spot" when you are idling in shallow water and pay attention to the drive height or destroy your u-joints. Come to think of it, that is a good one!
 

SS-C

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Well......talked to Mike at autometer, he says there is something wrong with my system, never ever heard of a problem like mine. Told him the faria works fine, his response, well you should run that then. Grrrrr.

I conversed with Mike as well when I contacted Autometer. He told me the same bullshit that I have the wrong sender, or that mine was defective. He also said he had never heard of this issue with their gauges. This is total crap; the guy is lying through his teeth.

Below are screen shots of the last email between us:

Email_Response_From_Mike[1].JPG


My_Response_Back_to_Mike[1].JPG


After sending my response back to him along with some internet advertising showing that Autometer retailers are in fact advertising their trim gauge for Mercury/Mercruiser 2 wire senders, Mike completely ignored me and stopped conversing with me altogether. I have never heard back from him again.

That last email he sent indicates they are building their trim gauges to the wrong specs, at least for the Mercury 2 wire senders that have been around for decades.

And, for some strange reason, Lavorsi is doing the same thing. Is there a connection here?

Oh, here is a screen shot of the Faria gauge information indicating the 0-160 ohm rating for Mercury/Mercruiser & others.

Faria_Gauge[1].JPG


Well, at least Faria gets it right!
 

SS-C

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Post a pic of your existing gauges?

Well, here is a pic of mine, today I found time to go into the garage, pull down and blow the dust off the box with all my Autometer gauges. This is what I was planning on installing, the Pro-Comp Carbon Fiber Marine Series.

Screenshot_20201218-134852[1].png


Also look into Livorsi, they will custom build you your gauges all your colors etc for a little extra as well they are great to deal with. And no they don’t use Autometer to make their gauges, at one point the did but that is old history.

Yes, I thought I would do just that, so I looked into Livorsi for a gauge to match the look of my Autometer trim gauge. I emailed Livorsi to find out if they had one that would work with my Merc sending unit so I could complete the install of all my new gauges. I simply want one that will indicate up when up & down when down and anywhere in between, very simple right?

Well, when I contacted Livorsi (via email) I asked that very question, Fred’s response was:

“we do not have a gauge that works in that manner.” “Not sure why we didn’t ever go full scale with our gauge. Perhaps a safety thing so that during normal operation you stay in this range & you don’t ever get near trailer mode..? I don’t have facts to back that up, just a thought at this point. I will kick it around here and see what I can get.”

As far as Livorsi building custom gauges, yes they will put different faces & bezels on them, but the internals stay the same. So, what I gathered from Fred is, they too only make one analog trim gauge and it is the same ohm value (10-90 ohm) as the Autometer gauge. This means that both gauges will not react properly with the full range spectrum (10-180 ohm) of the Merc 2 wire sender.

Lol… Unfortunately, I’m stuck with these gauges. I have even thought to go as far as taking apart the Autometer gauge and switching out the internals with my Faria (if that is at all possible). At least that way I can use all my new gauges, they will match each other and work correctly.
 

SS-C

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Not trying to be a smart ass, but you can set your trim limit switch to your sweet spot and not have to look at the gauge.

Adjusting the trim limit switch to stop at a given point would limit your ability to go beyond and fine tune the boats attitude if more trim is desired. At that point the trailer button would be the only other way to raise the drive further and that would not be a wise move at high speeds.

I rarely look at ours except to make sure it is up for loading.

Yes, I always look at my gauge to make sure the drive is up for loading. With this gauge however, the needle pointer shows fully up when in fact the drive is still hanging down, not a good situation.
 

SS-C

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I really like the auto meter speedo with all the extras it does, but damn, hard to give them my money with their, fuck You attitude.

zx14, Yes, I totally agree, they suck!

By the way, is this the same speedo your interested in? And yes, it is more than just a GPS speedo.

20201219_015816[1].png


I’m not real excited about the lens on this speedo; it seems to be just some thin cheap plastic just like the rest of the gauge. I am a little concerned about even wiping it down with a towel as it could leave some fine scratchy swirl marks in the lens.

Funny thing, my lesser expensive Faria have glass lens in them!

zx14, to be honest, I would think twice about purchasing any of these gauges.
 

zx14

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zx14, Yes, I totally agree, they suck!

By the way, is this the same speedo your interested in? And yes, it is more than just a GPS speedo.

View attachment 953216

I’m not real excited about the lens on this speedo; it seems to be just some thin cheap plastic just like the rest of the gauge. I am a little concerned about even wiping it down with a towel as it could leave some fine scratchy swirl marks in the lens.

Funny thing, my lesser expensive Faria have glass lens in them!

zx14, to be honest, I would think twice about purchasing any of these gauges.
Yes, that’s the one, but I would go with white face.
 

02HoWaRd26

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Well, here is a pic of mine, today I found time to go into the garage, pull down and blow the dust off the box with all my Autometer gauges. This is what I was planning on installing, the Pro-Comp Carbon Fiber Marine Series.

View attachment 953202

Yes, I thought I would do just that, so I looked into Livorsi for a gauge to match the look of my Autometer trim gauge. I emailed Livorsi to find out if they had one that would work with my Merc sending unit so I could complete the install of all my new gauges. I simply want one that will indicate up when up & down when down and anywhere in between, very simple right?

Well, when I contacted Livorsi (via email) I asked that very question, Fred’s response was:

“we do not have a gauge that works in that manner.” “Not sure why we didn’t ever go full scale with our gauge. Perhaps a safety thing so that during normal operation you stay in this range & you don’t ever get near trailer mode..? I don’t have facts to back that up, just a thought at this point. I will kick it around here and see what I can get.”

As far as Livorsi building custom gauges, yes they will put different faces & bezels on them, but the internals stay the same. So, what I gathered from Fred is, they too only make one analog trim gauge and it is the same ohm value (10-90 ohm) as the Autometer gauge. This means that both gauges will not react properly with the full range spectrum (10-180 ohm) of the Merc 2 wire sender.

Lol… Unfortunately, I’m stuck with these gauges. I have even thought to go as far as taking apart the Autometer gauge and switching out the internals with my Faria (if that is at all possible). At least that way I can use all my new gauges, they will match each other and work correctly.

Reach out to Marty, double check what they can do today.
My last boat and two I’ve worked on all went to Livorsi with absolutely no issues in the past three years.
And if they can in fact do it, which would blow my mind if they cannot, I’d send them that Autometer and have them use that face.
Like i said idk what could be different but my old boat was an 06’ one boat was a 2012 and the other i did gauges for just a few weeks ago was an 01’ so that’s a big spread for the sender.
 
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SS-C

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Lol… Quite the mismatch you got going on there zx14. Reflection, or is there a couple with cracked lenses?

Hey, that Faria gauge doesn’t look half bad in there… Lol, but at least it works!!!

Instead of the Faria, why didn’t you just get another Eliminator trim gauge?

Did you ever find out who makes the Eliminator gauges? Be interesting to know this because they have the correct ohm value for the Merc sender.

Oh and I love your Isotta steering wheel, that’s another thing on my list!
 

zx14

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No cracks just a reflection. I didn’t think eliminator had my old gauge, boats a 2003.
 

Cole Canadian

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Adjusting the trim limit switch to stop at a given point would limit your ability to go beyond and fine tune the boats attitude if more trim is desired. At that point the trailer button would be the only other way to raise the drive further and that would not be a wise move at high speeds.



Yes, I always look at my gauge to make sure the drive is up for loading. With this gauge however, the needle pointer shows fully up when in fact the drive is still hanging down, not a good situation.
Your idea to swap internals from another gauge would probably be your best bet to keep the matching set, or have you looked into having an electronic repair shop change the internals to make that one work properly?
I know that gas gauges for vehicle restorations can be restored maybe its just a matter of changing a diode?
 

Shrub Lurker

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Love the auto meter “upgrade” on mine. My trim gauge is wonky and even though auto meters tech line said mercruiser oem sending units were compatable, mine weren’t.

WTF AUTOMETER?
 

buck35

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I've been following this all along ,and while electricitly challenged , is there no way to change the value sent to the gauge?
 

02HoWaRd26

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Lol… Quite the mismatch you got going on there zx14. Reflection, or is there a couple with cracked lenses?

Hey, that Faria gauge doesn’t look half bad in there… Lol, but at least it works!!!

Instead of the Faria, why didn’t you just get another Eliminator trim gauge?

Did you ever find out who makes the Eliminator gauges? Be interesting to know this because they have the correct ohm value for the Merc sender.

Oh and I love your Isotta steering wheel, that’s another thing on my list!

I’m 90% that Beede was doing the Eliminator gauges back then.


@zx14 where is your boat stored?
I put the silver carbon Carlotta in my boat a few months ago and being nothing is carbon makes me really want something else. How’s that white one to keep clean etc? Keep thinking to just order one and see how it looks but it’s rough at 500$ a wheel. Any better pics with that wheel visible?
 

SS-C

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My auto meter pro comp marine platinum trim gauge is slow too, and I'm running an scx with external trim puck kit from teague. I'm used to it now. The original beede was super fast.

Yes, the Faria/Beed are correct for Mercury/Mercruiser (160 ohm) that's why they work so well. The Autometer & Livorsi are not of the correct ohms.

Love the auto meter “upgrade” on mine. My trim gauge is wonky and even though auto meters tech line said mercruiser oem sending units were compatable, mine weren’t.

WTF AUTOMETER?

EXACTLY! WTF AUTOMETER ?????????????????????? Stop bullshitting all of us!
 

zx14

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I’m 90% that Beede was doing the Eliminator gauges back then.


@zx14 where is your boat stored?
I put the silver carbon Carlotta in my boat a few months ago and being nothing is carbon makes me really want something else. How’s that white one to keep clean etc? Keep thinking to just order one and see how it looks but it’s rough at 500$ a wheel. Any better pics with that wheel visible?
My boat is in my garage in havasu. I just try to have clean hands when I touch it. My last Dino was white. It still looked ok when I took it out 6 months ago, other than the yellowing from the sun.
 
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