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Re: Oil Pressure Sender

PostPosted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 3:35 pm
by alanr
I agree with John. I wonder if you are being a tad over cautious?
I have always found SJS stuff better than others I could mention and they generally seem to know their stuff. If they say it is suitable for a +2 then I would just buy it and sort it out with them if it turns out not to be suitable.

Alan

Re: Oil Pressure Sender

PostPosted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 3:56 pm
by Andy Hamblin
alanr wrote:I agree with John. I wonder if you are being a tad over cautious?
I have always found SJS stuff better than others I could mention and they generally seem to know their stuff. If they say it is suitable for a +2 then I would just buy it and sort it out with them if it turns out not to be suitable.

Alan


well, i could be wrong but it is my undesrtanding that some Plus 2s had 0-100psi gauges and some had 0-60psi gauges. SJ list a single sender, so it can't be right for all Plus 2's.

My understanding might be wrong, but of the Plus 2's I have seen, some had 0-60 some had 0-100.

Apart from all that, it was the dismissive,unhelpful attitude. someone else can experiment with SJ - it won't be me. Don't get me wrong, I'm no snowflake, but when you ask for perfectly reasonable information on specification and get told if that's important to you to have that you'll have to shop somewhere else....

Re: Oil Pressure Sender

PostPosted: Mon Mar 16, 2020 8:02 pm
by checkrail
Hi Andy I agree with you that's a very dismissive attitude. When I bought my '71 +2 S130 from Paul Matty with a 60psi gauge, among all the previous invoices was one from them for a 100psi sender which was fitted,. the 60 one no longer available.

I am used to the lower reading on the gauge. If you decide to use the incorrect one you need a right angle union for the sender to fit. I contacted the Smiths guy but I was not confident that he could produce the correct sender.

The only time that I contacted SJS was querying the carriage cost of a new windscreen listed on their website, this was so low it was obviously wrong. The answer I got was 'Oh the screens are collection only'!

Regards John

Re: Oil Pressure Sender

PostPosted: Tue Mar 17, 2020 10:15 am
by rgh0
As far as i know the 0-60 electric oil pressure sender in the correct size tapping for a plus 2 is NLA. If some one says they have it and do not know the details and how and why it fits then it is probably not the correct. However 0-60 senders are available I believe to match the original smiths gauge electrically but you will need to make up adaptors to fit it to the Ford block

cheers
Rohan

Re: Oil Pressure Sender

PostPosted: Tue Mar 17, 2020 10:43 am
by HCA
Were electric pressure gauges fitted on the Elans? I ask as mine - a 1973 - has a 'mechanical' one and no signs of any spare wires in that area, just assumed them to all be the same.

Re: Oil Pressure Sender

PostPosted: Tue Mar 17, 2020 10:45 am
by rgh0
Only on some Plus 2.

cheers
Rohan

Re: Oil Pressure Sender

PostPosted: Tue Mar 17, 2020 12:13 pm
by alanr
Well mine is definitely a 60psi gauge and electrical sender unit. '71 +2S130.

Alan

Re: Oil Pressure Sender

PostPosted: Tue Mar 17, 2020 2:18 pm
by billwill
Even if it is a 0-100psi sender it could still be right, in that the signal strength or resistance etc being perhaps the same for both types at 60 psi. The 0-100 sender merely able to give a higher reading.

Re: Oil Pressure Sender

PostPosted: Wed Apr 29, 2020 8:02 pm
by JoeMan78
Hi Andy & All,
This is my first post, although I've been using all the usefull contnet for the last year of +2S ownership.

My sender has gone this week, during a short but essential trip to the supermarket ;) - frightened the life out of me I can tell you.

Did you manage to get the right sender - I've emailled Smiths in Wales, but it looks like they're closed for Covid. They have what looks to be the right one listed, but the website suggests they make to order!
https://www.smiths-instruments.co.uk/pr ... ransducers
PTR1813-06 LOTUS 1/8" X 27 TPI 60 psi
I'd rather have the right one, but a £20 unit from fleabay 0-100psi might have to tide me over for a couple of months!

Many thanks,

Joe.

Re: Oil Pressure Sender

PostPosted: Thu Apr 30, 2020 8:13 am
by Andy Hamblin
Hi Joe,

no, I still haven't got the oil pressure sender sorted. That Smiths part number does seem to be the correct spec, although different to the part number stamped on my original sender - PT1817/06.

The only store i can find that lists PT1813/06 is Howard's Instruments in Australia. It will be interesting if Smiths can actually supply one. I would be surprised if they can but hope I'm wrong!

Be careful if you go the cheap and cheerful interim Ebay route - most sellers won't mention this but Smiths gauges work the opposite way from most other gauge manufacturers. Most sender units on Ebay increase resistance with respect to an increase in pressure. Smiths gauges work in the opposite way with an increase in resistance correlating to a decrease in pressure.

Just so I could check that I actually did have oil pressure, I bought a cheapo Chinese 0 - 100psi gauge and sender (about £8 if memory serves). It works absolutely fine but you can't mix and match with the Smiths stuff - if you connect the Smiths gauge to the cheapo sender unit the needle goes right off the scale with the engine not running.

Let me know how you get on Joe - looks like we are in the same boat!

Cheers,
Andy

Re: Oil Pressure Sender

PostPosted: Thu Apr 30, 2020 9:22 am
by JoeMan78
Cheers Andy,
Sounds like wise advice - i really didn't realise this would be quite to complicated to resolve - when I realised it was the sender I thought it would be an easy swap-over job!

I've cut the top off the can and will see if I can manage a repair on the original unit, everything's fousty and corroded in there so hoping just a clean up of the contact points and corrections will work!

OPS.jpg and
inside the 0-60psi sender


Wish me luck!

Joe.

Re: Oil Pressure Sender

PostPosted: Thu Apr 30, 2020 9:54 am
by john.p.clegg
You should have prised it open all around and then re-fitted and crimped..

John ;-)

Re: Oil Pressure Sender

PostPosted: Thu Apr 30, 2020 10:20 am
by Andy Hamblin
JoeMan78 wrote:Cheers Andy,
Sounds like wise advice - i really didn't realise this would be quite to complicated to resolve - when I realised it was the sender I thought it would be an easy swap-over job!

I've cut the top off the can and will see if I can manage a repair on the original unit, everything's fousty and corroded in there so hoping just a clean up of the contact points and corrections will work!

OPS.jpg


Wish me luck!

Joe.


good luck Joe - let me know how you get on, I might attempt the same, although someone has already made a very messy repair on mine so it probably won't stand another one.. Presumably if you made a clean enough cut, the top can be Araldited back on?

Cheers,
Andy

Re: Oil Pressure Sender

PostPosted: Thu Apr 30, 2020 12:25 pm
by billwill
Good grief.

I feel sure that modern pressure sensors are simple pressure sensitive resistors not tiny bourden gauges with built in potentiometers.

That bourden approach looks like a reliability disaster just waiting to happen :shock: because you now have TWO delicate instruments to go wrong instead of one.

When I heard that Plus 2s use an electrical pressure indication, I somehow naturally assumed that Lotus had done it for improved reliability.

Re: Oil Pressure Sender

PostPosted: Thu Apr 30, 2020 2:20 pm
by john.p.clegg
No potentiometer in there , just a resistor , mechanical adjustment and a bi-metallic strip..

John ;-)