I'm back from vacation in France, where I saw many Minis, Triumphs,
a few MGs, and a late model Aston Martin ('twasn't a Lagonda, looked
more like a DB-?)
As I left in July, TINTIN's starter was dying. I dismantled the thing
only to find that the armature was shorted to the body. No way to undo
those screws holding the armatures in. $112 later, I have a fully rebuilt
starter. But we're not off the block (Or blocks!) yet...
Well, either TINTIN (My '66 MGBGT) was running cooler and cooler, or
my temp gauge was going south. Two guesses. Since MOSS has none in
stock, and West Valley Speedo is moving and can't do anything for two
weeks and I need my car NOW!, I decided to take the fool's route and
attempt a diagnostic and perhaps repair. Removing the Gauge (Combined
oil pressure and water temp!) I boiled some water (No, we didn't
tear bedsheets into strips!) to determine that, yes indeed, the gauge
claimed that water boils at 140 degrees.
Immersing the entire length of the capillary tube showed evidence of
bubbles at the Sender/tube juncture. An attempt to solder it caused
bubbling at the joint, and an even worse seal, plus the smell of
diethyl ether. Soldering it with the sender immersed in an ice bath
delivered a good seal, but not a functional gauge. Apparently all of
the fluid had boiled away.
Does anyone know what the fluid in a capillary-tube temperature gauge
is? (DiEthyl Ether?). And where can you get about 5cc of it?
I tried Methyl Ethyl Ketone, as the solvent with the highest vapor
pressure that I had on hand, but that resulted in water boiling at
100, Farenheit (O.K., so now I have a celsius gauge?)
And how do you recalibrate that little Bourdon tube after fiddling
with it? (I HAD to open the gauge to look at it, didn't I?)
Well, either TINTIN (My '66 MGBGT) was running cooler and cooler, or
my temp gauge was going south. Two guesses. Since MOSS has none in
stock, and West Valley Speedo is moving and can't do anything for two
weeks and I need my car NOW!, I decided to take the fool's route and
attempt a diagnostic and perhaps repair. Removing the Gauge (Combined
oil pressure and water temp!) I boiled some water (No, we didn't
tear bedsheets into strips!) to determine that, yes indeed, the gauge
claimed that water boils at 140 degrees.
Immersing the entire length of the capillary tube showed evidence of
bubbles at the Sender/tube juncture. An attempt to solder it caused
bubbling at the joint, and an even worse seal, plus the smell of
diethyl ether. Soldering it with the sender immersed in an ice bath
delivered a good seal, but not a functional gauge. Apparently all of
the fluid had boiled away.
Does anyone know what the fluid in a capillary-tube temperature gauge
is? (DiEthyl Ether?). And where can you get about 5cc of it?
I tried Methyl Ethyl Ketone, as the solvent with the highest vapor
pressure that I had on hand, but that resulted in water boiling at
100, Farenheit (O.K., so now I have a celsius gauge?)
And how do you recalibrate that little Bourdon tube after fiddling
with it? (I HAD to open the gauge to look at it, didn't I?)
Well, either TINTIN (My '66 MGBGT) was running cooler and cooler, or
my temp gauge was going south. Two guesses. Since MOSS has none in
stock, and West Valley Speedo is moving and can't do anything for two
weeks and I need my car NOW!, I decided to take the fool's route and
attempt a diagnostic and perhaps repair. Removing the Gauge (Combined
oil pressure and water temp!) I boiled some water (No, we didn't
tear bedsheets into strips!) to determine that, yes indeed, the gauge
claimed that water boils at 140 degrees.
Immersing the entire length of the capillary tube showed evidence of
bubbles at the Sender/tube juncture. An attempt to solder it caused
bubbling at the joint, and an even worse seal, plus the smell of
diethyl ether. Soldering it with the sender immersed in an ice bath
delivered a good seal, but not a functional gauge. Apparently all of
the fluid had boiled away.
Does anyone know what the fluid in a capillary-tube temperature gauge
is? (DiEthyl Ether?). And where can you get about 5cc of it?
I tried Methyl Ethyl Ketone, as the solvent with the highest vapor
pressure that I had on hand, but that resulted in water boiling at
100, Farenheit (O.K., so now I have a celsius gauge?)
And how do you recalibrate that little Bourdon tube after fiddling
with it? (I HAD to open the gauge to look at it, didn't I?)
Well, either TINTIN (My '66 MGBGT) was running cooler and cooler, or
my temp gauge was going south. Two guesses. Since MOSS has none in
stock, and West Valley Speedo is moving and can't do anything for two
weeks and I need my car NOW!, I decided to take the fool's route and
attempt a diagnostic and perhaps repair. Removing the Gauge (Combined
oil pressure and water temp!) I boiled some water (No, we didn't
tear bedsheets into strips!) to determine that, yes indeed, the gauge
claimed that water boils at 140 degrees.
Immersing the entire length of the capillary tube showed evidence of
bubbles at the Sender/tube juncture. An attempt to solder it caused
bubbling at the joint, and an even worse seal, plus the smell of
diethyl ether. Soldering it with the sender immersed in an ice bath
delivered a good seal, but not a functional gauge. Apparently all of
the fluid had boiled away.
Does anyone know what the fluid in a capillary-tube temperature gauge
is? (DiEthyl Ether?). And where can you get about 5cc of it?
I tried Methyl Ethyl Ketone, as the solvent with the highest vapor
pressure that I had on hand, but that resulted in water boiling at
100, Farenheit (O.K., so now I have a celsius gauge?)
And how do you recalibrate that little Bourdon tube after fiddling
with it? (I HAD to open the gauge to look at it, didn't I?)
Well, either TINTIN (My '66 MGBGT) was running cooler and cooler, or
my temp gauge was going south. Two guesses. Since MOSS has none in
stock, and West Valley Speedo is moving and can't do anything for two
weeks and I need my car NOW!, I decided to take the fool's route and
attempt a diagnostic and perhaps repair. Removing the Gauge (Combined
oil pressure and water temp!) I boiled some water (No, we didn't
tear bedsheets into strips!) to determine that, yes indeed, the gauge
claimed that water boils at 140 degrees.
Immersing the entire length of the capillary tube showed evidence of
bubbles at the Sender/tube juncture. An attempt to solder it caused
bubbling at the joint, and an even worse seal, plus the smell of
diethyl ether. Soldering it with the sender immersed in an ice bath
delivered a good seal, but not a functional gauge. Apparently all of
the fluid had boiled away.
Does anyone know what the fluid in a capillary-tube temperature gauge
is? (DiEthyl Ether?). And where can you get about 5cc of it?
I tried Methyl Ethyl Ketone, as the solvent with the highest vapor
pressure that I had on hand, but that resulted in water boiling at
100, Farenheit (O.K., so now I have a celsius gauge?)
And how do you recalibrate that little Bourdon tube after fiddling
with it? (I HAD to open the gauge to look at it, didn't I?)
"Happiness is driving a car old enough and open enough
that even driving the speed limit is a thrill!"
************************************************************************
*Philippe Tusler - El Toro, CA "MILOU" '57 MGA Roadster *
*A-Mail: <TUSLER@MP050> "TINTIN" '66 MG/MGB-GT *
*InterNet: TUSLER@MP050.MV-OC.unisys.com "N/A" '88 ISUZU Trooper*
************************************************************************
From rwg1@cornell.edu Tue Sep 11 11:42:43 2001
From: (Roger Garnett) rwg1@cornell.edu
To: british-cars@autox.team.net
Date: 31 Aug 93 08:41:34
Subject: Re: Audacity
> From: phile@pwcs.stpaul.gov (Philip J Ethier)
> To: thcollin@mtu.edu (Timothy Collins)
> > engineered TO DEATH, The story of the British Sports Car." Page 17 carries
>a
> > story titled; "Defeating the Triumph, the decline of the British Sports Car
> > Empire." Here are a few lines from the article. First a by-line:
> > "How the English automotive industry lucked into a lucrative U.S. franchise
> > without knowing why, and then threw it away."
> "Leave it to the British to invent something, get pretty good at it and
> then let somebody else beat them.
Not that the US auto makers didn't do the same, but they seem to be
recovering.
Just take a look at this summers "British Car" magazine for the section
titled "Lost Leylands"- Hard evidence of several very interesting
engineering projects, some of which were almost in production, with large
amounts of money spent, only to be squashed by the B-PS-L management.
Rover, MG, Triumph, Jag. They all suffered. BPSL couldn't see producing any
model that might compete with anything else in their line, and ended up
killing almost everything, rather than having a variety of models able to
compete for market niches. Just the opposite of some very successful
marketing stratigies. Look at Coke- they don't pare down to one model, they
make a wide range of similar product to cater to every taste, and grab a
larger chunk of shelf space in the process. Britian's array of auto
manufacturers did just this in the 50's and 60's.
Just think how boring the Matchbox catalogue would have been with only 1-5
to dream about! Many's the time I spent drooling over those pages, or
pausing at the display in the store window while walking home from from
school, trying to figure where to spend my next 50 cents. I never got rid
of any of those matchbox cars, which provided so many hours of enjoyment.
Most of them even have their blue & yellow boxes. In fact, I think I'm
still doing it today. But, the catalogue now contains hundreds of
full size LBC's, and my storage box is full, but I have my eye on number
59...
Roger -I need a bigger barn- Garnett
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