Voltage stabilisers

[worzel]

Hi to all mini owners!

Apologies for the intro-the reason is that I ditched the original dual oil/temp guage about 27 years ago and switched to an electrical type as fitted to Mk1 "Deluxe" minis since the design of the guage matched the rest of the instruments in the elan.

However, since then the guage has always under-read. Don't laugh- after years of putting up with it I've decided to fix it-so- anybody out there any experience of these early minis- does the temp guage needle move in a smooth arc as the engine heats up or does it do what mine does and progress in jerky movements. Ditto when I switch off- the needle reverts to zero again in a jerky fashion.

Does this suggest to the more knowledgeable ones out there that-

the guage is faulty or
the voltage stabiliser is somehow affecting the reading.

Ideas welcomed.

Regards

John

[neilsjuke]

"when I switch off- the needle reverts to zero again in a jerky fashion. " That will be the guage as there is no power to the voltage stabiliser when you turn of the ign.
Neil

[worzel]

Hi Neil

I see your logic about the effect when switching off. Would you know if the "jerkiness" present with the engine on and during the warm-up period points to the guage being faulty in some way. I imagined that the guage needle should either move steadily in line with temp rises and do the reverse with the engine hot and the ignition off or alternatively still rise steadily during warm-up but drop immediately to zero when switched off.

Regards

John

[Alex]

Hi John,

The needle should move smoothly, but I have seen plenty that don't! I believe the electric Smiths guages work on a bi-metalic strip principle to damp out voltage spikes etc. These days a smoothing capacitor would be used. Given how delecate the needle mechanism is, I would suspect yours has had a knock and is touching on something inside.

For reference, the voltage stabiliser should have an output of approx 10 volts. I've just had to make a new one to get my temp guage reading right. The previous supply to the temp/fuel guages was 13 volts making my temp guage read 30 degrees high!!

Alex