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Temperature sending unit


SteveR

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When I got my 37 Plymouth it did not have a temp sending tube. The gauge is in the dash  but read in the middle of it. The engine is a 52 Dodge 230CID. Is there an after market unit I can buy? 

How hard is it going to be to remove the old sending unit from the block, and what thread size am I looking for? I would love to have it all original but the cost is very expensive. When your retired cost counts. haha

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Sorry but I forgot to ask. I had a boil over so I need to replace the antifreeze. In America I always use to use Prestone. I can get this here in England but so much has changed in Antifreeze that it is a muddle. IAT, OAT, HOAT. Also England gears more to the modern European cars than our lovely Classic American ones.

Thanks guys 

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It isn't really a sending unit but rather an ether filled bulb and the "wire" going to the dash is actually a small tube. The dash unit is the same basic construction as a pressure gauge. The way it works is the ether evaporates as the engine gets warm and the pressure from the vapor moves the needle on the dash. The bulb, tube and dash unit are all sealed and can not be replaced separately.

 

Since you mention that the dash unit is reading halfway, it is damaged or at least out of adjustment. Because of this your best bet is likely to look on eBay or equivalent places for the complete setup. But if that is not practicable, you can graft a new bulb and tube from a universal aftermarket "mechanical" temperature gauge on to your factory head unit. You might be able to adjust your factory head unit (bend the linkage between the Bourdon tube and the needle, not the Bourdon tube itself to adjust). I have a write up on grafting a new bulb onto a factory head unit on my website. It has been a long while since I last did it so I don't know current prices, etc. Or even, in your case, if the same type of after market temperature gauges are available in England.

 

The aftermarket units available in the US come with an assortment of gland nuts one of which should work in your engine's head.

 

I haven't figured out all the ins and outs of the new fangled anti-freeze solutions. I still go with old fashioned green ethylene glycol.

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3/8" NPT is the thread size in the head. 

 

Here's an NOS one on Ebay, you can see what it's supposed to look like if nothing else.

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1937-Plymouth-HEAT-TEMP-GAUGE-Radimeter-NOS-MoPar-665098-In-Box/113853481877?epid=1666928115&hash=item1a82324395:g:kaoAAOSw-ixdVCxO

 

I found one other source, for about $300 plus shipping.

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Tod Thanks for your reply.Grafting looks pretty straight forward to me. Your instructions with pictures are very helpful.  I am assuming that if the soldered seal is not correct you will loose the ether and have to buy another. You mentioned about the American aftermarket ones. Where might I get them on line? 

Can I blow into my gauge and test it? How much psi would it take to check if it is broken or not?

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Sniper, Thanks for the link. I would love to put like for like in but the shipping and the price of the unit would be $207.Way beyond what my meager pension allows me to spend. There are times when I wish I was back home in Minnesota. 

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I installed an aftermarket bourbon tube temperature gauge in our D24 many years ago (because I destroyed the original bulb when I removed the head once).  I just mounted the gauge under the dash where I can see it easily.  Inexpensive, and you have the protection of knowing the temp your car is running at until/if you put an original one back in.  Just about any auto parts store will have them, either in the shop or on line.  Do not blow into the tube to test, it uses a very subtle amount of pressure change from the ether in the system to work.  It's been a while since I viewed any tutorials on repairing a bourbon tube gauge, but the way to test them is to immerse the bulb in water and heat the water.  Water boils at 212, so when it starts boiling, that's where the gauge should read, if necessary, adjust the needle as TodFitch notes.

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I repaired my gauge several years ago and it still works fine. Buy a mechanical temp gauge that has a flexible metal line ( not plastic, under $25 ) put the bulb in a cup of water and freeze it, cut the line a couple feet from the bulb so the splice will be hidden under the dash and find a piece of brass to join the new bulb with the old gauge. Make sure the hole is open in the line when you cut it, slip the two ends into the brass sleeve and solder together or as I did JB weld them together. Test the gauge in boiling water.

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This has to be the best site out there. Thanks to Tod, Sniper, Dan & The Oil Soup.

I think at this point I am going to mount a gauge under the Dash as a temp measure. I do not know how much tube I have protruding from the original gauge, but will be looking into it.

I Just flushed out the cooling system and will be adding new antifreeze. I checked the timing & found my overheating  problem. The timing had changed to firing 'after' tdc. This has happened to me once before so I will have to re-tighten the Distributor. I am running 12vdc with electronic ignition.

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Dan when I looked at where you were from, Ludlow, I thought your not that far from me. Then I read a little farther and realized your Ludlow is in Maine. I think I need a new pair of glasses.

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On ‎7‎/‎6‎/‎2020 at 11:08 AM, SteveR said:

Dan when I looked at where you were from, Ludlow, I thought your not that far from me. Then I read a little farther and realized your Ludlow is in Maine. I think I need a new pair of glasses.

...I'm still closer to you than anyone else on the Forum who lives in the U.S. :cool:

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My temp gauge stopped working this past winter when I rewired my 51 Dodge truck. I installed a temporary underdash unit until I find an original replacement. This unit was $10 US and free shipping to Canada. Sender was a direct screw into my 218 and is an electrical sensor, 2 inch gauge with mount. This is the one I got but there are lots similar on Ebay.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/163820684124

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Dan when I looked at where you were from, Ludlow, I thought your not that far from me. Then I read a little farther and realized your Ludlow is in Maine. I think I need a new pair of glasses.

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Dan, I'll bet you don't have a Castle built in 1085 that's still standing.

 

I met my wife in America. She is English. She said, "there isn't anything old in America". I said what are you talking about we have Ft Snelling!" She asked when was it built and I said 1820. her words cut me to the quick, "That's not old." she said. It turns out that she lived in Kenilworth England and use to play in the ruins of Keniworth Castle built in 1120.

So I have to concede.

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2 hours ago, 1949 Wraith said:

My temp gauge stopped working this past winter when I rewired my 51 Dodge truck. I installed a temporary underdash unit until I find an original replacement. This unit was $10 US and free shipping to Canada. Sender was a direct screw into my 218 and is an electrical sensor, 2 inch gauge with mount. This is the one I got but there are lots similar on Ebay.

 

I'm looking into this Thanks for the tip.

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2 hours ago, SteveR said:

Dan, I'll bet you don't have a Castle built in 1085 that's still standing.

 

I met my wife in America. She is English. She said, "there isn't anything old in America". I said what are you talking about we have Ft Snelling!" She asked when was it built and I said 1820. her words cut me to the quick, "That's not old." she said. It turns out that she lived in Kenilworth England and use to play in the ruins of Keniworth Castle built in 1120.

So I have to concede.

 

Back in 1987 I was on a camping/trekking trip to the Tibetan Autonomous Region of the Szechwan Provence in China. On the way to the mountains we were taken to see a the “Temple of Three Kings” which was built to commemorate the completion of some waterworks (canals, etc.). The waterworks themselves were built over 2000 years ago and were still in use. But it wasn't clear to me how old the temple/monument was. So I asked and the answer was, “Not very old, only 500 years”. The elementary school mnemonic of “in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue” immediately popped into my head and I started to realize how new everything of European origin in North America is.

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Oldest European thing around here is the French settlement site on St. Croix Island in the St. Croix river near Calais, ME, circa 1604.  There are still some stone foundations on the site.  Oldest surviving building in Aroostook County is close by, the Blackhawk Putnam Tavern in Houlton, built in 1813.  Oldest thing I have is a late 1700s immigrant trunk that my great grandparents brought to the US when they immigrated from Finland in the 1800s. I thought that was "old" until I visited antique shops when I was stationed in West Germany, and the proprietors explained that things in Europe weren't really considered old or antique unless they were at least couple hundred years old.

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There are buildings and houses dating back to 15-1600's that are still in use today. The oldest thing I have is a pocket watch from 1859. It still works. My wife has a suitcase she used when she went to America on the Queen Elizabeth in 1957. Its not that old but it still has the stickers and their cabin number on it. I also have many things my Grandpa had in WW1 including his gas mask. It's hard to think I knew someone that fought in a war over 100 years ago. My earliest family member immigrated to the U.S. from England around 1640.

I guess old cars and other old things all go together. I'm becoming one of them. haha

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3 hours ago, SteveR said:

. . . My earliest family member immigrated to the U.S. from England around 1640. . .

 

That might be better phrased as “immigrated to what is now the U.S. from England around 1640.” The U.S. didn’t get started until quite a few years later. :)

 

I can also trace ancestors in what is now the U.S., on both my mother's and father's sides, to the 1640s.

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I have very little of anything even remotely 'old' that came down through my family.  I have my grandpa's wire frame reading glasses, and according to some family hear-say, they belonged to my great grandpa before him.  (My Grandpa was born in Oklahoma Territory in 1904, to give some idea of age.)  Then I have the Edison phonograph that my dad's uncle, "Banker Toews" gave him when Dad was around 16 years old (born 1930).  This windup phonograph was new in 1921, and has a radio built into it as well - well, actually it's in a pull-out drawer.

My ancestors fled what is now Holland in the 1600's due to religious persecution, moving first to what is now part of Poland, then had to leave there (same reason) a hundred & fifty years later or so, moving to "New Russia', what is now Ukraine.  They fled there in the years 1874 - 1890, settling in what is now Kansas & Nebraska.  I suspect that my great grandparents were mostly landless farmers there in the Russian Empire, largely due to laws which prohibited the division of the original farms as they were granted when their own ancestors moved there from Prussia (modern day Poland).  (Other laws made it rather difficult to purchase new land, outside of the original land-grant areas designated for my people.)  So very little was brought along in these moves.  (There IS a sea trunk in a museum in Hillsboro, Kansas that belonged to my 4th great grandfather.)

Then I have a couple of gold pocket watches I bought some years ago as an investment, but I have no idea how old they are.  Not very, probably.  (They are in the safety deposit vault at the bank, so I seldom see them.)

So nothing much to speak of, really.

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2 minutes ago, Eneto-55 said:

I have very little of anything even remotely 'old' that came down through my family.  I have my grandpa's wire frame reading glasses, and according to some family hear-say, they belonged to my great grandpa before him.  (My Grandpa was born in Oklahoma Territory in 1904, to give some idea of age.)  Then I have the Edison phonograph that my dad's uncle, "Banker Toews" gave him when Dad was around 16 years old (born 1930).  This windup phonograph was new in 1921, and has a radio built into it as well - well, actually it's in a pull-out drawer.

My ancestors fled what is now Holland in the 1600's due to religious persecution, moving first to what is now part of Poland, then had to leave there (same reason) a hundred & fifty years later or so, moving to "New Russia', what is now Ukraine.  They fled there in the years 1874 - 1890, settling in what is now Kansas & Nebraska.  I suspect that my great grandparents were mostly landless farmers there in the Russian Empire, largely due to laws which prohibited the division of the original farms as they were granted when their own ancestors moved there from Prussia (modern day Poland).  (Other laws made if rather difficult to purchase new land, outside of the original land-grant areas designated for my people.)  So very little was brought along in these moves.  (There IS a sea trunk in a museum in Hillsboro, Kansas that belonged to my 4th great grandfather.)

Then I have a couple of gold pocket watches I bought some years ago as an investment, but I have no idea how old they are.  Not very, probably.  (They are in the safety deposit vault at the bank, so I seldom see them.)

So nothing much to speak of, really.

Nothing? Wow you have a great family history!

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20 hours ago, Sniper said:

And if we go to Egypt we find things even older.  What's most impressive, to me, it the 2000 year old waterworks still in use.  A thousand year old ruin is nothing but a pile of rocks to me.

My wife took me to see Kenilworth Castle. It is a ruin now but what is fun is to try to piece it back together in my mind. Then look for odds and ends like kitchen tiles, door posts/pivots and such. I found a piece of plaster from the walls. It contains horse hair and was painted. I like it much more than Warwick Castle which is complete.

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3 hours ago, TodFitch said:

That might be better phrased as “immigrated to what is now the U.S. from England around 1640.” The U.S. didn’t get started until quite a few years later. :)

 

I can also trace ancestors in what is now the U.S., on both my mother's and father's sides, to the 1640s.

Well you got me there but he was born June 10, 1623 in Ruddington, Nottingham County, England, and died February 22, 1700 in Groton, Middlesex Cty., Massachusets

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