mechanical water temp guage question

T

Tim Potter

Member
I hooked up a new mechanical water temp guage that I got at napa to help monitor the new 345 just installed in my Scout. Bad news is the guage isn't working. I drilled and tapped my tstat riser to accept the probe and ran the bourdon tube over to the fire wall where the guage is mounted. The tube doesn't have any crimps in it so I'm thinking there has got to be a disconnect between the tube and the needle. :confused5:
does anybody know if there is a way to disassemble the guage and repair it or, do I just go buy another one. I really don't want to open the cooling system again if I don't have to and, I lost the receipt so napa probably won't take this one back.
 
Willing to bet you broke the probe when you seated it.
Not much room in the riser to stick it in, the probe is too long to fit, it probably bottomed out, and when you tightened it,it bent inside and broke. You need an extension fitting,
I don't hear anything, did your phone die?:dita:
 
I second Isa's idea, I see/deal with this quite often.

It's a sealed system, go snake another. An instrument repair station could possibly repair but the charges would be more than another gauge.
 
I installed a mechanical water temp gauge and as Isa said, I made an extension. It's a simple galvanized fitting from the hardware store. I drilled out the hole to let more water around the bulb. It's worked for thirty years now.
 

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I take it you have driven it enough to be sure it is up to temp? Lots of bad rs stats around that will bypass enough water so the engine will not heat up.
 
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I think this amounts to another case of tim not doing his due diligence like he should. Firstly, this guage's scale is wider than I probably need. It reads 130-280 and the 190 reading is right next to 130. Secondly, I should have done a boiling water test on the guage before I installed the probe and I did not.

I must apologize to the board for also leaving out some crucial information that would have changed the responses. I don't have the standard IH t-stat riser and I don't run a rs t-stat. My riser is home made and I run a superstat 180*. The port I drilled is below the level of the t-stat, there is nothing for the probe to hit inside, it's just an open hole. There is no need for an extension pipe. You can see the location of the port, between the sp wires, directly in front of the carburetor mounting surface, in the picture I've attached. Since I believed it was not part of the equation, I made the mistake of not telling you about it.

The answer to Robert's question is; no, I haven't taken it out on the road yet. I have brought the temp up in the driveway, reading the electric guage in the dash at 190* and the mechanical guage still reads very close to 130 as though the needle is not moving at all. I suppose there is a possibility that I have not brought the temp up high enough however, my hope is that it will run down the road at 190* which would mean that this mechanical guage would not serve much of a purpose most of the time.

I'm still betting that the internal coil is not connected to the needle or, possibly the bourdon tube is ruptured, again, back to verify, verify, verify. You'd think I'd know this by now.

I should have bought a more suitable guage with a scale that more closely matches the needs of a 345 and, I should have verified it before installing. It's an easy redo now, only water in the system at this point
 

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That big hunk of rpt aluminum sittin' on top is sure inspiring. It's undeniably the jewel of this motor. Credit the Ismail's for its creation. All I tried to do was build a display case befitting a true thing of beauty.
 
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