Capilliary gauge repair

[Keith Clements]

I have box of failed water and oil temp gauges which do not work. So I investigated repair and the going rate seems to be at least £70.
I spoke with Tom Chapman who suggested changing over to electric and I am awaiting any info on how to do that and possible suppliers.

But I have had a bottle of ether sitting in my fridge for 20 years with the intention of repairing them. This article pointsme in the right direction, but I would like to get some new tubing 1/16" with the coil around it. Any ideas?

I do have a couple of new Chinese look-alike gauges both in capilliary and electric , so I will see if I can change the faces over. As you may know I have used electric ones with senders in the cylinder heads for many years.

[robert lintott]

Keith, you may have tried Speedy Cables of Swansea, if not their no. is 01639 732213 or 732299, I found them very good with electric and capillary instruments regards Bob

[chapman]

Please be careful with the Ether as it is really inflammable and explosive and you need to solder the pipe to fix the clock
The ones which Keith mentioned are Durite and are very similar to Lucas but about a third of the price .
You can remove the glass and just paint out the name with black paint .
You can get a sender housing which plumbs into the top hose which has a sender already fitted and this is just wired to the clock and is very accurate in the same housing you can have another sender which starts the electric fan when the water temperature reaches 85C and shuts it off at 65c or variations of this. By plumbing this into the top hose you avoid trying to get a temperature from air when the radiator water is gone because of expansion and no water is in contact with the bulb All these parts are available mail order from Carbuildersolutions an online supplier
TomChapman

[Chris Spencer]

Link to car builder solutions below - just double right click on it on you go straight in to their Aldins Cave of a website

http://www.carbuildersolutions.com/uk/

[jowettgeoff]

Slightly off-subject this - but many moons a go (when I was young and daft - as opposed to now being old and daft), I tried to test a water gauge by heating up the sensor bulb with a blow torch. The pod housing exploded off the capillary tube like a bullet from a gun, fortunately missing my left ear by a smidgen. I narrowly escaped being deaf (and old and daft)

G McA