[Healeys] Fuel and temperature gauges

Alan Seigrist healey.nut at gmail.com
Mon Jul 6 02:51:42 MDT 2009


G'day Peter -

I know down under it is legal to grow certain weeds in your house if you
wish, and I was wondering if your auto electrician has been smoking some of
his home grown herb?

The BN1 temp guage is operated through the laws of thermodynamics, not
electricity.  There is an ether bulb which is connected to the guage by a 2
meter long copper tube which senses the pressure in the bulb based on the
water temperature in the radiator on the BN1.  Sounds like someone snipped
off the copper tube and you are wondering how to wire it up to an electric
sensor... well you can't!

Fear not my friend, there are many easy ways to work around this.  The main
thing is to figure out how you want to take the temp off the motor.  The
best way is to take it from the motor's water jacket on the head where it is
hottest, the alternative is to plug it into the original port on the
radiator, but that doesn't register overheating if your thermostat fails and
shuts closed.

If you go with an electrical version, you can fit up one from an MGB or
someithing similar:

http://holden.co.uk/displayproduct.asp?sg=2&pgCode=070&sgName=Hardware&pgName=Gauges&agCode=0611&agName=Smiths+Classic+Gauge+Fittings&pCode=070.017

I suspect the easiest thing will be for you to have the guage rebuilt by a
proper Smiths guage specialist with the ether sensing tube, and then you can
just screw that into the top of the radiatior like the original was designed
to do.  This shouldn't cost too much to have done in OZ.  Then you can use
your original guage without futzing around:

http://holden.co.uk/displayproduct.asp?sg=2&pgCode=070&sgName=Hardware&pgName=Gauges&agCode=0607&agName=Smiths+Classic+52mm+Full+Scale&pCode=070.018

Cheers,

Alan

'52 A90
'53 BN1
'64 BJ8


On Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 1:40 PM, Peter Linn <greylinn at ozemail.com.au> wrote:

> G'day list
>
> I'm now looking at getting the V6-engined BN1 wired. Doesn't look like
> being a
> huge problem, but it may be difficult to get the Smiths fuel and
> temperature
> gauges working with the existing sensors on the Holden motor. This is all a
> mystery to me, but my auto electrician says it's down to the impedance
> range
> (Ohms) - for example, the Holden sender works at 40 Ohms (full) 97 Ohms
> (half)
> and 280 Ohms (empty) Does anyone know these figures for the Smiths fuel
> gauge,
> and, if it works on the same principle, the temperature gauge? Or is there
> a
> way of recalibrating the Smiths gauges?
>
> Cheers
>
> Peter Linn
> Brisbane Oz
> BN1 Ward Spl coupe
> Bn1 Holden V6


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