[TR] Smiths Classic Mechanical Water Temperature Gauge from MerlinMotorsport

[terryrs at comcast.net]

>If you don't care how it looks, a new one can be a LOT cheaper than a repair.

>http://tinyurl.com/p4kcvbf

>And it drops right in.  Only modification is to run a wire to the lamp on the back.

>http://tinyurl.com/kkq5qxl

I've been buggered by this dilemma some years back.  I did send my original guages to Mo-Ma for rebuild, only to get them back with no cosmetics to the faces or needle and with the gas guage going bad within the first driving season.  Cost?  $700.  To be fair, Mo Ma made it clear, their first priority was to Pebble Beach type customers.  Fine.  But as a hobbyist, I don't particularly like being treated like a tier five customer who was made to wait 6 months for my product back.  Maybe the other guage specialists are better....

I switched to SunPro guages for my daily driver.  Reliable, attractive for non-purists like me, and exceedingly! cheaper.  Wish I'd done it before throwing $700 away.

Like Randall says, they drop right in.  Sending unit fits as is.  

Guess I'm still torqued about it.  Good news:  Of ever vendor I've worked with, from the Big Three to independents like Mike in Vermont, and to Randall, Peter, and all the other wonderful people on this list, I can only say that buying my $500 TR3 total restoration project out of a shed in New York, has been one of the best choices I've made.

Thank you all, by the way, yet again, and especially to Randall who bailed me out of any number of perplexing problems from the beginning.  Ten years of daily driving, and people at work look forward to seeing my 3 in the parking garage for the first time, that Spring has finally arrived in the Northeast.

Terry Smith, '59 TR3A
New Hampshire