Is there anyone restoring the old cat guages, or is there a source for reproduction models?
Dennis Wilkinson
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541 963 0139

Hello Dennis,
I believe we know each other from my rubber track days in the 90's. I have collected quite a few Cat gauges because my father in law was the sales manager for Rochester Manufacturing Co. in Rochester NY and one of his biggest accounts in the 40's and 50's was Caterpillar. Many original gauges have "Rochester" written on the very bottom of the bezel. I do not know of a rebuilder but have disassembled a few and know that the paint on the gauge face is very fragile and I wouldn't use more than soap and water to clean it. I found a NOS in an antique store recently. My current project is a lamp made from a complete D8 14A dash complete with all the original Rochester gauges. Sorry I cannot help more.
Packrat

try here

www.gaugeguys.com/resto.htm

Seems like there is quite a demand out there for reproduction guages. Are the guages for most early Cat tractors the same, or is there a lot of differences in the different models?

Many cats had Stewart Warner guages in them. The Wings line looks very similar to some of the guages in my D2 and DW10. Hope this helps,
alan627b
Stewart Warner www.stewartwarner.com/
Wings line
www.stewartwarner.com/Catalog/2wng.html

The ones i love to find and like the best have Syphon scripted on bottom of face, they are suited for the RD series mostly , and up to early 3T D7 times. pete

Hello D6 Pete, The correct name is Sylphon not Syphon. I had both the Sylphon Fuel and Oil Pressure Gauges still on my D2/3J#4103 when I bought it. I had them redone By APT Instruments International. They did a great job. Nothing beats the look of the large face beveled glass gauges. The original temp gauge on my D2 is a Stewart-Warner large face beveled glass unit. The later U-model cats had almost the same gauge with the exception being a solid block white line on the face dial above which it said "Operating Temp." After a certain Serial number they started installing small face non -beveled glass gauges in the U model cat line. As is always the case, the gauges were cheaper looking and most likely, cheaper to produce.

Thankyou for info, yes those early gauges really look so great on a early tractor , painted or not !. i am always looking out for them. I hope there aint any going to the China scrap heap !! pete