clairetoo
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| posted on 6/5/08 at 05:36 PM |
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Mechanical Temp Guage
Not sure if this is the right forum to ask this , but here goes !
I have a Racetech mechanical water temp/oil pressure guage which was working when I stripped the car down for a bit of a rebuild.....nearly four years
ago 
It has spent all that time safely stowed on a shelf , the cable isnt kinked or squashed but - it no longer works ( the water temp part , oils pressure
reads fine ) 
I`ve just boiled it in the kettle and ..... no movement on the guage at all .
Anybody know if it can be repaired - or weather its something I could sort myself ?
Its cuz I is blond , innit
Claire xx
Will weld for food......
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nitram38
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| posted on 6/5/08 at 05:52 PM |
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It sounds like the liquid inside (possibly alcohol?) has leaked.
My only suggestion is to contact racetech, but I suspect you will be told to buy a new one.
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Fatgadget
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| posted on 6/5/08 at 06:47 PM |
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Speedy cables used to repair Smiths capilary temp gauges.Might be worth giving them a bell and having a word.
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clairetoo
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| posted on 6/5/08 at 07:24 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Fatgadget
Speedy cables used to repair Smiths capilary temp gauges.Might be worth giving them a bell and having a word.
Thanks for the suggestion - I`ve bunged them an email but since I hope to be on the road by the weekend (  ) I`ve ordered a temp gauge from Burton`s
as a stop-gap ( I can live without the oil pressure gauge for a while.....)
Its cuz I is blond , innit
Claire xx
Will weld for food......
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paulf
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| posted on 6/5/08 at 09:11 PM |
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Ive repaired a few of these in the past.The liquid is Ether, the same stuff as easy start.You need to drill a small hole in the bulb and using a
syringe half fill it with ether.The hard bit is then you have to solder the hole up, but due to the ether evaporating it tends to blow the solder
away, what I eventually did was to drill a hole big enough to take a small diameter copper tube similiar to the one to the gauge and solder that in
first then fil through it before crimping it closed and then soldering the end of it.
It takes a bit of trial and error but cost next to nothing to do.
Paul
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Schrodinger
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| posted on 7/5/08 at 10:51 AM |
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I think ETB do repair/refurbish on a number of guages.
Keith
Aviemore
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clairetoo
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| posted on 8/5/08 at 11:16 PM |
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I got a reply from speedy cables - £40 + carriage and VAT
Looks like I may be exploring the locost repair....
Its cuz I is blond , innit
Claire xx
Will weld for food......
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02GF74
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| posted on 9/5/08 at 09:34 AM |
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that is useful info - I read the stuff inside was freon.
I was going to suggest freezing it but for the fact your freezer would need to go down to - 140 C brrrrrrrr .
if tou fill it right up, that would allow for some of it boiling away?
I assume you use an electrical soldering iron?
I wonder if a small blow trouch would speed up the soldering? The ether vapours coming out of the hole would catch fire but should not burn inside
the bulb due to loack of oxygen.
After the fix, how accurate was the gauge?
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paulf
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| posted on 10/5/08 at 08:59 PM |
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I tried all methods of soldering it but found it was best to do it by fitting a small bit of tubing then filling through this before crimping it and
then soldering.The problem with the ether evaporating is it comes out of the hole that you are trying to fill with solder.
It was as accurate as required , it read 100 degrees in boiling water and about 80 plus at running temperature.
Paul.
quote:
Originally posted by 02GF74
that is useful info - I read the stuff inside was freon.
I was going to suggest freezing it but for the fact your freezer would need to go down to - 140 C brrrrrrrr .
if tou fill it right up, that would allow for some of it boiling away?
I assume you use an electrical soldering iron?
I wonder if a small blow trouch would speed up the soldering? The ether vapours coming out of the hole would catch fire but should not burn inside
the bulb due to loack of oxygen.
After the fix, how accurate was the gauge?
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