The Ford Barn - View Single Post

tubman · 08-05-2017, 10:23 AM

Something else; I dissected an inoperable temperature sensor to see what made it tick. I found a lot of corrosion on the sending apparatus itself. When I cleaned it up, the unit started working again. I soaked it in Evaporust to get the rust off of the unit, and dressed the points. When tested, it gave of the same type of signals as my good units, only a bit more defined. Also of interest is that there is an adjusting screw on the points, which would allow you to calibrate the unit.

These units are rebuild-able. They are constructed in such a way that the sensing apparatus is completely sealed off from the engine coolant. One could remove the guts from the unit, screw the housing into the head, insert the sensing part temporarily and with subsequent test runs, could adjust the unit using the screw on the points. After you got it where you wanted it, you could use epoxy to put the unit back together permanently using some epoxy. The sending apparatus is held into the housing with 3 small crimps in the housing holding the working part in. These are easily removed with careful use of a Dremel tool. It is a little more difficult getting the guts out, but with the help of a couple of jewelers screwdrivers, I go it apart. There are two steel washer on top of the fiber insert, that has a brass cup in the bottom. Once you get that out, you have access to the actual sending unit, which can be removed with a pair of needle-nose pliers. The points will probably be corroded as well as the spring brass strip the contacts the cup in the bottom of the fiber insert. Clean all of the areas and I bet that the sender starts working again. Then it's a matter of putting it back together again with epoxy to hold the whole thing together. Since the internal contact is spring loaded against the cup, I used a "C" clamp to hold it together against the spring pressure while the epoxy hardens. One last piece of advice : before you remove the guts, make sure you note the orientation of them to the grooves on the housing.

For the price they are getting for repop sensors, taking a shot at rebuilding the old one seems to me to be a viable alternative.

08-05-2017, 10:23 AM	#5
tubman Senior Member Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: Minnesota, Florida Keys Posts: 10,320	Re: I now have TWO temperature gauges Something else; I dissected an inoperable temperature sensor to see what made it tick. I found a lot of corrosion on the sending apparatus itself. When I cleaned it up, the unit started working again. I soaked it in Evaporust to get the rust off of the unit, and dressed the points. When tested, it gave of the same type of signals as my good units, only a bit more defined. Also of interest is that there is an adjusting screw on the points, which would allow you to calibrate the unit. These units are rebuild-able. They are constructed in such a way that the sensing apparatus is completely sealed off from the engine coolant. One could remove the guts from the unit, screw the housing into the head, insert the sensing part temporarily and with subsequent test runs, could adjust the unit using the screw on the points. After you got it where you wanted it, you could use epoxy to put the unit back together permanently using some epoxy. The sending apparatus is held into the housing with 3 small crimps in the housing holding the working part in. These are easily removed with careful use of a Dremel tool. It is a little more difficult getting the guts out, but with the help of a couple of jewelers screwdrivers, I go it apart. There are two steel washer on top of the fiber insert, that has a brass cup in the bottom. Once you get that out, you have access to the actual sending unit, which can be removed with a pair of needle-nose pliers. The points will probably be corroded as well as the spring brass strip the contacts the cup in the bottom of the fiber insert. Clean all of the areas and I bet that the sender starts working again. Then it's a matter of putting it back together again with epoxy to hold the whole thing together. Since the internal contact is spring loaded against the cup, I used a "C" clamp to hold it together against the spring pressure while the epoxy hardens. One last piece of advice : before you remove the guts, make sure you note the orientation of them to the grooves on the housing. For the price they are getting for repop sensors, taking a shot at rebuilding the old one seems to me to be a viable alternative.