Just had a disappointing experience with a Moss repro part. I wanted
to replace the fuel sender in my '64 MGB, as the original
Jaeger/Smith unit was weeping a little (the potmetal flange of the
original is not entirely flat, and as the sealer-coated rubber gasket
aged, it tended to leak,) and the gauge readings were starting to
become erratic.
The Moss part I got is a made-in-Taiwan reproduction. After draining
the tank, removing the original, and "offering-up" the new sender,
with new gasket slathered in Formagasket, I came to discover that the
holes in the casting were too close together! Put in one screw, and
tried to put in the opposite one, and it would not go. Pulling the
new part out and measuring the hole pattern, there seemed to be a 1
mm or so pattern difference (new one smaller) across the diameter.
Since the holes are pretty close to the edge of the casting, I didn't
think drilling bigger ones was a good option. Grrr...
This morning I called the Moss technical number to find out if this
was an isolated problem. The guy I talked to wasn't aware of any QC
problems...but it looks like I won't be trying this again for a
while, as I'm guessing this is a problem with a whole run of these
things.
I called Nisonger Instruments, since the paper instructions in the
box had the Nisonger logo on it. The guy there said that the unit
was not made by them!! (Whether this is really true or not would be
a good Kelvin question...) He went on to say that most of the
reproduction senders he was aware of had a fairly crude wiper
assembly on the rheostat that would tend to quickly wear out the coil
wire. His best advice was to have the original rebuilt (all I need
is a good core...) He also mentioned that XKs Unlimited sells Smiths
gauges and senders, and that I should give them a call to see if
there was a current part for this.
I called Dave at XKs Unlimited, and found that they indeed have a
stock of Smiths products, but are not ordering any new stuff-just
selling the stuff they have. There is a somewhat generic sender he
recommended (TB 9013 KIT) that requires modification to the arm to
match the intended application. I might give this a try, as the
quoted price was $38 (vs. $75 for the repros.) Probably couldn't go
wrong...
--
Chris Attias
'64 MGB
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