5-0-5 A panel meter?

[T i m]

Hmm, I think it was more Japanese sounding than that (and it may not have begun with a Y).

Yeah, I had quite a few Smiths bits at some time.

Ah, that was another, oil pressure!

;-)

I guess it was like most things they *could* serve a purpose (like indicate when yer oil or big end shells needed changing) but as you say, for most of the time they just looked good.

My favourite (and most expensive if I remember correctly) was the baby rev-counter.

The good thing about meters though (assuming you knew how to read them) was they did give you advanced warning of a problem. The Daughters Ka doesn't have a temperature gauge so the first and only warning you would get of a problem in the cooling system is when the red light came on by witch time it could be too late?

A hose split on my old Rover 218SD the other day and I did the remaining 25 miles home using the temperature gauge as a speed limiter (max speed was about 50 mph, pretty good with no water I thought) ;-)

T i m

[T i m]

Yup ..

Well yes, indeed, I still think that is good value compared with some other mass produced stuff you get from the same source. I guess this doesn't have the fancy badge or leisure / luxury / trend appeal as it's just a functional light so they can't push the price up for those reasons. I can't see mention of country of origin or whatever on the sparse paperwork, just they are sold by/via PurpleLine?

i m

p.s. I put the 12V lamp on again this morning and just noticed the battery indicator on the change controller go to amber. The battery voltage measured at the controller terminals is 11.95. I can just see the sun coming up over the horizon so it will be interesting to see at what point the solar panel kicks in. I'm going to leave the single light on (they draw just under .5A) and so see if the 14W panel (still indoors in the window) can cope with that load and take the battery indicator back to green.

[Graeme]

In message , T i m writes

I think my Yaeger should have been Jaeger? Then there were Smiths, and Lucus. Yazaki?

I always wanted, but never had, a clock.

Indeed - foot down, and watch the manifold pressure. I think it was the water temp. gauge that used a capillary (spelling?) tube between the engine and the gauge. The tube was encased within a protective wire case, and had to be carefully fed around the engine bay, and through the bulkhead. Accidentally touching it against a battery terminal produced some interesting sparks.

Yes - I had a matching speedo and rev counter, but how I found a circular speedo for an Anglia, I cannot remember.

Absolutely. Modern cars seem to have warning lights for every eventuality, but, as you say, with gauges you can, um, gauge when something is going wrong, whereas with a warning light, whatever is going wrong has already gone.

[T i m]

Ah 'Yazaki', I think that's them! (well remembered that man) ;-)

Oh yeah, the clock! ;-)

I think I remember them. Ah, and did you fit a 'T' piece to where the oil pressure switch used to go (and fit that back to the T) then you had some fine translucent tubing to thread back to the oil pressure gauge (the type of tube that wanted to stay coiled up!)?

I only ever stuck with the stock speedos, anything else was a bit more in-depth than my customizing was going to go.

Yep, that's 'progress' I suppose >

To be honest I was firstly worried (how are we going to get home), then experimental (ok let's give it a try and see how far we get), then blasé (wahee, 50 mph and no meltdown!). ;-)

Tough ole things those 1.9 Pug diesels. ;-)

T i m

[dennis]

Why not put one of these in

are cheap enough to hack into shape and they frequently have them on offer for less.

[Graeme]

In message , T i m writes

I cheated, and browsed the classic car area of eBay :-)

Yes! That reminds me of the tubing used to connect the manifold pressure gauge to the manifold. Drill the manifold, tap the hole, then there was a special part to reduce the diameter of the tubing - forget that, and the gauge flew all over the place.

The speedo I used was not calibrated for the car, so it looked good, but wasn't actually useful :-)

ROFL! Part of my job as a sub postmaster is vaguely overseeing a delivery office full of posties, and their vans. All strange noises and flashing lights in the vans are ignored. If the van runs, it is used. Part of the rational is that, if there is a problem, the postie has to take the van to the workshop at the main mail centre, which is nearly 50 miles away, whereas, if the van dies completely, the AA will come and get it ...

[T i m]

I like it. ;-)

So they did ... could they be considered the forerunner of the 'Economy lights' I saw on a 1.1 Mk3 Escort?

As an aside I've just remembered I didn't change the speedo drive over when I recently swapped the gearbox on my MkII Escort kit car (now reads very low). The std box was setup for a 3.89:1 diff and I'm now running a 4.44:1 (mind you, also with wheels 1/3 bigger in circumference than std).

Good and more chance of us getting our mail. ;-)

Hehe. Round here all the post vans seem to be either stopped or full throttle, even the biguns! I also like the way the rear roller shutters bounce open and closed in synch with the axle tramp. ;-)

T i m

[T i m]

Hmmmm.

I suppose if I was going digital I could do as you say and hack one about, even re-casing it etc? If I did that I'm not sure how much of the PCB I could lose but I'd want it hard wired on the 10A scale (and I think the shunt is at the bottom) and could fit a toggle switch or PTM button for 'on' etc? (or one of those two way mini-toggles that's centre off with a switched make one way and momentary the other, for a quick instantaneous reading).

Or I could leave it pretty well as-is and just cut the internal and fit an additional / external 'on' switch so I wouldn't have to turn the selector round to 'off' every time (I think the 10A circuit would remain in any case). I could even hard wire my circuit leads and use the probes on other meters. ;-)

As you say, I've bought them at 2 for a fiver before so a cheap way to get the display and 10A shunts etc (as less faffing re calibrating).

Good thinking, thanks. ;-)

T i m

p.s. Now if I could find a cheap one that did auto off! ;-)

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember T i m saying something like:

When I bought a solar charging panel I wondered about the varying charge rates at different times of day and year - a simple DVM was easy to stick in place when needed.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember T i m saying something like:

[Mark]

its only £1.60+vat

-