Capri Water Temp Gauge

[Guest joni]

Hi Everyone!

 

I am back from Uni and trying to finish my car at last. I have the SVA booked for 10th Oct at Leighton Buzzard and its starting to get close now...

 

I have a few little problems which I need to sort out ready for the SVA

 

The main one is the water temp gauge not working. I bought the sender, voltage regulator, and gauge itself off ebay supposedly as a matched set but no guarantees. When the car is up to temperature and the fan cuts in, the gauge will lift very slightly maybe 10% of its total travel.

 

Does anyone know what this is likely to be? My voltage regulator is reading 5v I'm not sure if this is what the gauge needs though?

 

When I was tightening the ring terminal for the sender wire onto the sender I may have overtightened it, as the small stud that comes off the sender was turning inside the main body of the sender making a slight clicking noise? Does this mean its broken?(!)

 

Also does anyone know whether you are meant to run the fuel gauge and temp gauge off the same 12v regulator?

 

All answers greatly appreciated! Maybe it will be on the road soon after 4 years! It definitely seems like a long time since the home call from the Thames Valley crew!

 

Cheers, Jon

 

ps I don't have the wiring and clocks cowling that come with the capri gauges, they are mounted directly onto the dash if this makes any difference?

[Guest Dan_Beeston]

If it's any consolation you don't need a working temp gauge for the SVA

[Longboarder]

Number of possibles. The capri VR is wired as below and runs the temp and fuel gauges. Both of them work ignition live regulated supply to gauge to sender to earth. You can do a quick test of the circuits with the ignition on by earthing the sender wire. Gauge should go to max. The temp sender is in the head just above the dizzy. You need the matching sender that was fitted in the capri the gauge came from. The fan works from a different sender/temperature activated switch and is not linked to the gauge in any way. You can make some adjustments to both zero and full deflection of both gauges to improve accuracy as there are toothed wheeles in the back of the gauges. Don't know how much adjustment these allow.

 

Nigel

[Guest john]

Welcome back, young man, hope the studies went well.

As Dan said, don't get bogged down on something not needed for the test, and lets get the testable items sorted.

Might be a good idea to cast another look over your car before the test. How about the 7th ?

 

and by the way, the 10th is clubnite , so we shall await the news of the sva.

[Guest joni]

Thanks for the replied everyone, good to hear from you again John!

 

I guess I may as well leave it for now then I'm sure there are other things that are more important to fix... not much left now though! I'm wondering whether I might as well just take it up to the SVA and then get my list of corrections.

 

I think I'm going to be around on sat 7th will check and get back to you. A check pre SVA would be really useful. I have booked the whole of the week off so I can work on it and maybe take it back up there later in the week if it fails..

 

Longboarder the wiring is exactly as in your drawing. I think maybe I need to change my sender in that case as everything else works fine. I will check out earthing the wire onto the block as you suggested and see if it goes to max. Could be a dodgy connection in the loom I guess...

 

Cheers for the replies I will let you know about the 7th when I get home tonight..

 

Jon

[Guest Daniel Aldridge]

Hi Jonathan, If its any help, the sender I was given by the motor factors for my capri guage is white in colour Which is what I think the Northwest Hoods Site Recomends

Danny

[Guest joni]

Hi Jonathan, If its any help, the sender I was given by the motor factors for my capri guage is white in colour Which is what I think the Northwest Hoods Site Recomends

Danny

 

Hi Daniel, mine has a gold/ yellow band on... not sure what that means though? Cheers for the info, Jon

[Guest joni]

Just got in from the garage it's sorted! Still got a bit of work tidying to do but getting there. Thanks for the help and advice everyone!