Hi All

I've got a Spa dual gauge - Oil pressure / Oil Temperature and it's been fine up until Thursday on the rolling road, when the wiring to the oil temperature sensor got a little hot! The temperature is showing 162 degrees C even when the engine is stone cold. I've tried to see if there is any damage to the cabling by stripping the insulation and shielding cables back. Now my oil pressure reading is stuck on 1.9 psi even with the engine running!

This has caused me to miss tomorrow's hill climb as I can't chance running without an oil pressure gauge (and this runs the warning light as well!).

Any thoughts?

I'm going to try and disconenct the oil temperature sender at the gauge end later just to see if this is affecting the pressure readings.

Wyn

That is why I run a capilary type.
The only solution is a new capilary gauge or replace the senders as they sound as if they are fried.
You can prove it by connecting the wires through different resistances and checking the readings or putting the cable end to earth, but do this bit at your own risk!



[Edited on 12/5/2007 by nitram38]

Sounds like fried wireing to me.

depending how hard it is to get to could you run temporary wires to your senders and disconect the original ones and see what your gauge says.

Regards

Agriv8

I was thinking of running new wiring but can't work out why the pressure side of things has gone wrong, as this is definitely not damaged and runs totally separately from the temperature wiring.

The only other thing I can think of is that the car got pretty damp in the trailer yesterday and maybe the pressure wiring connector is damp although having two separate faults is unlikely!

I’ll try disconnecting the temperature wiring from the gauge before hacking the loom apart!

Wyn

i can only assume, and admittely no definite answer, but could the fired wiring have some effect on the resistance of the wire? this would affect the voltage to the guage i guess, but i don't know how guages work i know you plug them in and they (usually) do

just an idea for you though

Do the gauges move at all?
Maybe they were shorted out?

They're a digital gauage so no actual movement but the they do work and go through all the startup tests etc all ok and this is what makes me think it's the loom!

The gauge comes with its own loom but this is inside the trunking that runs from the dash back to the engine. I need to reroute the cables to the sensors anyway (further away from the exhaust manifold !!) so stripping out the cables and soldering in new bits won't be too difficult if I have to do it.

Wyn

Sounds like the gauges are ok, maybe some of the cables fused together?

Wyn, talking of Manifolds, I am still trying to get mine made!
Your contact in Wales said I had to bring the engine.......too far.
Mac 1 said the would get an 05 engine off Malc at Yorkshire engines to build on.........no more heard from them and Martin Keenan doesn't seem to have enough time to brush his teeth let alone make an exhaust! (Chris Mason has been trying to get him to make one for me).
I'm not desperate, just collecting parts for now.
I should be able to start my chassis the week after next, now I have got another garage for the F1-2.
I will need the exhaust to space the engine on the chassis and hence the rear wheels etc.

can you check you wireing ( or senders )with a multimeter and see what resistance you are getting ( ohms ) this should tell tou if the wires are fused together

regards

Agriv8

quote:

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Originally posted by chris mason
OT,

Martin, your manifold!!! it's looking good for this week, i'll keep you posted, all being well you should have it by this time next week

Chris

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Hi Guys

I've got it sorted. I phoned SPA - very helpful - they said send the gauge and sensors back and they'd test them - also said the loom doesn't like any heat! As my next (first!) event is in a fortnight I couldn't take the chance, so, i put the multimeter on the loom tonight and it wasn't right! I stripped away at it and found the wiring to the oil pressure sensor had gone all brittle - shortened it - reconnected it (the sensor fittings are only screw connectors) and tried it out and both displays are reading sensibly. I can't fire it up because I'll wake Junior and it's taken me hours to get him to sleep! I'll try it in the morning but I'm confident it's fine now. I just need to reroute the loom to take it further away from the manifold.

Result!

Wyn