Temp gauge rebuild, still Speedy Cables?

[Luckyone]

Someone posted on here years ago that Speedy Cables maybe Speedy by name but certainly weren’t Speedy by nature.

I just rang them to see, seems it’s still the same, they have a 10 to 12 week turn round time at the moment.

Luckily I have two identical gauges so l can send one off & keep the one that reads over by 20deg, so it’s not the end of the world.

I was just wondering if anyone had found a company that can rebuild the temp gauge quicker than them?

[Luckyone]

plasticman said:

I have seen a couple of cerberas where the temperature capillary has been cable tied to the engine on the way to the Dash . You could check to make sure it takes the coolest route and definatley not attached to anything moving !
As the capillary is intact you can pull the gauge apart youself and bend the mechanism to match the temperature you want. It takes a while to ease the gauge surround offbut after that it is relatively easy using a boiling pan of water to set 100 C .

I was testing it using hot water before properly installing the pipe work. The ECU temp agreed with the my thermometer, dash gauge was way off. It was massively over to start with then settled down to read 20 over as the temp started to slowly drop in the pipe.

I just looked at it again days later & the gauge has settled down reading to read 70deg with the sensor removed from the coolant pipe. I can’t feel my hands it’s so cold in the garage, I think it’s probably had it.

I was wondering if it came apart easily, not sure it’s worth trying though given its erratic behaviour?

I think Speedy said £120 to rebuild it (plus the long wait). Motoclan have new ones for about £180 with the TVRCC discount. However I didn’t see a mint green option that I need.

[Luckyone]

spitfire4v8 said:

If speedy cabels say 10-12 weeks then expect it to take 10-12 months. utter shambles.

Ah ok, thanks Think I’ll forget that option then!

plasticman said:

As the capillary is intact you can pull the gauge apart youself and bend the mechanism to match the temperature you want. It takes a while to ease the gauge surround offbut after that it is relatively easy using a boiling pan of water to set 100 C .

Thanks for that suggestion, thinking a bit more I will give that a go, I just tried it in some hot water & it seemed to just read the set amount over. Hopefully it’s just stopping at that amount over the normal stop point too.

I had to use heat to get the sensor out of the old pipe (to put it into the new stainless one). I stopped to look at the gauge halfway through & it was not too surprisingly reading off the end of the scale. Probably over strained the mechanism, (edit) hopefully it will bend back then….

Edited by Luckyone on Tuesday 27th February 18:57

[Luckyone]

DuncanM said:

The needle isn't fixed, can be moved to match the temperature.

If you do decide to replace, I bought one of these, new, and readily available, then swapped over the bezel and face from my old one.

The capillary length is shorter, but still fits (4.2)


https://www.bmcparts.co.uk/products/mgb-dual-oil-w...

Excellent backup plan, I’ll pull the face off then & see what happens. (No difference between 4.2 & 4.5 for the length of capillary tube.)

It maybe a little while before I report back, I’m kind of almost there with rebuilding the whole car. Unfortunately I’m almost there with just about every part of it so still have quite a lot to do really!

notaping said:

You might find something here:

https://www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk/s/instruments-g...

Swap the face and needle. They have an electric water gauge which might be more acurate.

Thanks for that but if I can’t fix mine I’ll go with DuncanM’s link as he’s used that one.

The original one on the 4.5 was only a couple of degrees off the ECU temp after I did the body off on that & routed the capillary tube away from heat sources. That came out of the original pipe no bother at all 14 years ago, different story nowadays!