"Make" Drive Indicators?
 

I have a very old setup right now with a huge drive/trim indicator. A new indicator setup is pretty expensive and I was wondering if I could just fabricate some slots in the dash area (re-doing anyway) and get a printer to make up some numbering.

Thoughts?

What you're describing sounds like the way Fountain goes about their drive & trim tab indicators. Here's a couple pics to help you visualize it. Sorry I can't be of more help.
Dan

That's the idea!
 

Thanks. I do think this is the idea. Now, the question is can I make this work with the parts I have? Check out the pics of this VERY OLD SCHOOL set on my boat now. I think the issue is the long travel. I'd have to make slots 8 or 9 inches long instead of the 3-4 on these fountains. How do the newer indicators have such a short throw?

http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/a...1&d=1163142272

Where are they mounted on the tabs / drives? the farther out they are mounted the more travel they will have.

If you can't solve the travel issue, you can fab up a small pulley system to shorten the throw... it would basically be a big pulley mounted to a small pulley. or you can mount the cable coming off the drive/tabs to directly to a pulley if you can find the right spot. it's just going to take some experimenting to get it right.

They use a very flexible cable on the new panels.

I'm glad to see that the old girl is still in the shape she was all those years ago. Hopefully you're planning on leaving it like that. If you decide you want a pleasure boat, let me know. I'll take her off your hands.

Here's my answer to indicators - true old school. Clean, simple, and to the point. Only cost me the price of the dice. 2 tabs, one drive.

You get used to what the heights mean.

Works better than laying them down for sit down boat..............

Pretty cool.
 

And a very small footprint as far as dash space usage. Creative!

cool looking.

I like that a lot im assuming you just pull up until desired trim and then they stay?

Not my assumption
 

I assumed there are switches somewhere that control tilt and trim and these are just driven by cables to SHOW you where you are...not actually used to move the drives/tabs.

Right?

http://img397.imageshack.us/img397/1379/pb120018xa7.jpghttp://img143.imageshack.us/img143/1731/pb120011mg9.jpg
http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/5054/pb120013uc3.jpg

I moved drive indicators to old compass location for up front visability on my 1990 daytona

You could also do a lever with an offset pivot point, final output from the lever would be reveresed but still doable. I can provide you the exact length of the lever and the pivot point required to convert lets say 9" of travel into 4" of output. Just let me know.

Yes, you assume right. switches on dash for tabs, and switch on throttle for drive. I took my old indicator that you see on the left in first pictures, and used part of the bracket from it to hold the cables (one from each tab, one from drive)in position, letting them stick up through a stainless steel plate I made. My original indicator had cracked glass, one missing position pointer, and two that were so faded you couldn't see them. Could not use that style indicator after re-doing my dash setup - cables not long enough to reach face of dash, plus I wanted them up high.
The original indicator set was backlit before, and I could have done something for that too, but I wanted to keep it simple so that it would not need maintenence......