• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Broken water temp gauge

Share this page

G

Galen

Member
Offline
Last year I had the interior of my 62 BN7 redone. I recently pulled the engine for a re-build and found that the idiots stripped the water temperature sensor at the block to the point of no return where I had to cut the sensor. Apparently they tried to remove it when they were recovering the dash.

Any ideas or recommendations on replacing or the possibility of a repair?

Bruce
 
Hi Bruce,
Welcome to the forum. There are two main places that can repair the gauge. Nisonger and MoMa. You can search here for their info, unless things have changed recently, MoMa doesn't have a website. One thing to consider is how much work you want them to do. I have a neighbor who had one gauge completely refurbished and it made his other gauges look old and faded in comparison.
 
Wasn't Galen asking about the sensor having its threads stripped in the block -- not the gauge?
 
That was I got from his post. Because the fitting was stripped, he had to cut the capillary tube off in order to get the engine out of the bay. Even if the tube wasn't cut, the sensor bulb will need to come off to get a new fitting on.
 
TimK said:
Wasn't Galen asking about the sensor having its threads stripped in the block -- not the gauge?
Click to expand...

Not only I can't spell, I apparently can't read as well. I'm wondering if Galen is saying the corners of the sensor were rounded off making it hard to remove or whether the threads in the head, or even on the sensor, were stripped?
 
Thanks for the contact at Nisonger. The sensor bulb had to be amputated from the capillary tube in order to get the engine out because of the previous damage of someone rounding off the sensor head. I was able to remove the sensor with the rounded corners after the engine was removed for re-build.

Sorry I was not articulate with my problem.

Galen
 
Galen said:
Thanks for the contact at Nisonger. The sensor bulb had to be amputated from the capillary tube in order to get the engine out because of the previous damage of someone rounding off the sensor head. I was able to remove the sensor with the rounded corners after the engine was removed for re-build.

Sorry I was not articulate with my problem.

Galen
Click to expand...
For future reference, I took an inexpensive wrench (Harbor Freight tools)that fit the sensor, bent and cut it to fit around the sensor. Now it's easy to remove with the right tool. I keep it in my spare tool kit for emergencies.
 
Johnny said:
For future reference, I took an inexpensive wrench (Harbor Freight tools)that fit the sensor, bent and cut it to fit around the sensor. Now it's easy to remove with the right tool. I keep it in my spare tool kit for emergencies.
Click to expand...
Yes, I took a 6-point deep socket and cut a full length slot in it (for the capillary tube to pass through) to remove the water temperature bulb.

We do what we have to do :wink:
 
I reworked an open end wrench too but I think Randy's socket approach is better and one of these days I'm going to get around to modifying a socket.

Another trick - sometimes even when you get the nut loose the bulb will resist pulling out and it is easy to pull the capillary tube out of the bulb. If it doesn't come out easy, remove (withdraw) the thermostat and you can push the bulb out from the inside without pulling on the tube - I use a short piece of wood so as to not damage the bulb (it's soft and can be deformed easily).

Dave
 
Back
Top