Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi All,
I fitted a Jaeger water temperature gauge the other day with a new sender unit at the head.
I connected a wire from the sender to one terminal on the back of the gauge and a feed wire from the A4 fuse to the other teminal.
The gauge needle swings slowly over to maximum despite the car being at cold or normal running temperature and this is still the case when the wires are reversed on the gauge.
Is the gauge incompatible with the sender or could it be a feed problem? [frame][/frame]

The sender may be running a dead short - and the supply should be from the controlled voltage supply - not the full battery volts. If you don't have a controlled volts supply - you will need to get one ! This is why the mechanical temp gauges are better.......

bmcecosse wrote:The sender may be running a dead short - and the supply should be from the controlled voltage supply - not the full battery volts. If you don't have a controlled volts supply - you will need to get one ! This is why the mechanical temp gauges are better.......

Just seen the type of thing you mention on Ebay - solid state device that is wired into the circuit and supplies a steady 10 volts instead of full battery voltage.
I will order one and give it a try.
Thanks as always for your advice Roy.
P.S. Just fitted a new spade terminal to the wire at the sender and the gauge now registers zero with the engine cold so fingers crossed the voltage controller will let the gauge give the correct reading.

Hmm - well - does it still read HOT if you touch the wire to the head? The fact it now reads 0 suggests you have a bad connection - no current flowing........

Just take a voltage stabiliser off a black speedo.

bmcecosse wrote:Hmm - well - does it still read HOT if you touch the wire to the head? The fact it now reads 0 suggests you have a bad connection - no current flowing........

Yep, the needle swings right over when the wire is touched to the cylinder head.

mike.perry wrote:Just take a voltage stabiliser off a black speedo.

Thanks Mike but I would have to buy a used central speedo first and as the stabiliser unit is only £11 from Ebay I'll give it a try and see what happens, apparently the unit comes highly recommended by other buyers and has comprehensive instructions so even I won't be able to klutz it up!

go to the national and get a speedo for a fiver, or I got 2 knackered ones for a £1 each! both had a voltage stabiliser on the back and a fuel gauge.

" I got 2 knackered ones for a £1 " - that's my kind of deal! Probably not much wrong with them either!

DaisyMayFozz wrote:go to the national and get a speedo for a fiver, or I got 2 knackered ones for a £1 each! both had a voltage stabiliser on the back and a fuel gauge.

Going to the National would cost me around £40 in petrol!
I'll stick with the £11 unit from Ebay.

Boomlander,

Is your car +ve or -ve earth? If it's -ve earth the you can use a10v electronic stabiliser from Maplins (N38CA) - cost <£1.00! If you have +ve earth you are stuck with the original MInor type of stabiliser.

bmcecosse wrote:" I got 2 knackered ones for a £1 " - that's my kind of deal! Probably not much wrong with them either!

One was siezed, but the other is in my car right now!
Although the odometer does stick from time to time, which is why the trader probably classed it as 'knackered'

IslipMinor wrote:Boomlander,

Is your car +ve or -ve earth? If it's -ve earth the you can use a10v electronic stabiliser from Maplins (N38CA) - cost <£1.00! If you have +ve earth you are stuck with the original MInor type of stabiliser.

Jethro is positive earth and the unit I have ordered comes in both flavours so there is no compatibility problem.

Fitted the new voltage stabiliser and the temperature gauge reads fine - Job Done!

Great success.......

Just as an aside -- the older style of voltage stabilizer, fitted to the black speedos -- do these work positive and negative earth? I ask because I have such a stabilizer in Mog, and I've flipped to negative...

Yes - it's just a bi-metallic strip - it doesn't care which way the electrons flow.......

That's what I thought -- just wanted to be sure. Most excellent.