I've been lurking and reading the posts for a few months now, and I find them
all very interesting. But I want to comment on the temperature sender issue.
First, as background, I am the second owner, for 37 years now, of a '65 Tiger
that is still nearly stock. The car has 102K miles on it and is driven little
these days, has original Carnival Red paint that still shines (but on a quiet
day you can hear it fade), and was lowered many years ago when it was being
autocrossed. That autocrossing (when I was much younger; I am now retired)
led me to look for a replacement carburetor that would go around corners
without starving or flooding. I came across a used Holley 500cfm 2-barrel,
and the large accelerator pump would not clear the inlet for the water-jacket
carb spacer. I acquired a "dry" spacer and decided to simplify the water
plumbing along with the carb swap. Of course, that led me to install the
temperature gauge sender directly into the intake manifold and eliminate the
wierd adapter that was suspended in the water line.
I discovered the thread mismatch immediately. Realizing that the threads did
engage slightly but would not tolerate much tightening, I decided to gamble on
a simple (read "cheap") solution. I wrapped the sender threads with several
turns of teflon tape, applied some sealer to the fiber gasket, and installed
it with as much torque as I dared (not much). I had two concerns: Would it
leak? Would it fail to achieve the necessary electrical ground? It did
neither and has worked flawlessly for over 30 years.
I have had several race (sports and formula) cars over the years and believe
in proper and thorough preparation. But for other than potentially
life-threatening failures on street cars, the ultimate isn't always
necessary.
Jim Burruss
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