The ubiquitous "safety guage"
IMHO one of the cool bits that makes an LBC. Combined oil
pressure and water temp in one easy to read unit. What a neat idea!
It is one of those make or break parts tho. The temp side has
an alcohol filled capillary tube. When it breaks it's time to rebuild
or replace. The good news is that it is rebuildable by most of the
Smiths specialists (MOMAR, Nisonger etc) There is also a nice repro on
the market if your guage face is ugly. Please, please, please don't try
to have "a better idea". I've seen way too many cars with tacky el
cheapo water temp guages slung under the dashboard. The original unit
is still pretty good value for money when you compare the price of two
high quality (Sun/S.Warner) guages.
When installing the coolant probe, use antisieze. In fact
invest in a bucket of the stuff. Better living through chemicals.
Pulling engines and suspensions apart after long years between rebuilds
is so much easier. I'm actually looking forward to rebodying my 65 B
because I know that all the fasteners will come apart readily
Kelvin.
Mark Iansiti wrote:
>
> Jim said...
>
> >Also, tracing out the other way, the temp sender is mounted in the head
> >rather than the radiator - is this normal? The "tube" running from the
> >temp sender is partially missing. The manual that this thing is filled
> >with mercury?????? Are they available? I could not find in the Vickie
> >catalog, nor the Mini Mania.
> >
> >Thanks for any ideas/tips
> >
> >Jim buckley@mesastate.edu
> >
> >
> >'70 Midget
>
> OH MY GOODNESS (Stronger explative intended), You are right, VB doesn't list
> that sending unit/line/cable/thermo-couple... I just pulled the engine in my
> 70 Migdet to replace the clutch (going well so far, thank you for your
> concern) and the fitting in the block could not be separated from the
> fitting on the end of the ..thermocouple?...so I v-e-r-y c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y
> unbolted the fitting from the block while gently twisting the
> ...thermo-couple?...All is well at this point, BUT, I now have to v-e-r-y
> c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y wrench that puppy back in once the engine goes back in.
> The 64 thousand dollar question is.. will it twist enough just one more time
> - and if it doesn't what can be done?
>
> Is it in fact, really filled with mercury? If it breaks on the way in, can
> a replacenment be found? Don't mean to sound anything but 'british car
> cool', but I've had one b*tch of a day and I had put this little problem
> behind me...but I'm almost done, and I will have to deal with it, and JIM
> had to bring it up... Thanks Jim!
>
> At least we can both get an answer now... on the other hand, mine could go
> in without a hitch......ya, right.
>
> Any ideas?
> Mark
> 70 Midget
> 74 Spitfire
> 60 Bugeye
> 76 TR7 (I was a 'find')
> 77 TR7 (parts - came with the 'find')
>
>
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