Oil Temperature Gauge

[Nick Gramaglia]

The oil temp gauge has never worked in my 1600 HF in the 2 years I have owned her, I did try and fix it a while ago buying a new sender unit but had no joy, yesterday I made some progress though. I checked the ressistance of the new sender unit which was 800 ohms which as it turns out is way too high to register any movement on the gauge then I got a volume control off a old radio and connected one side to earth and the other side to the wire leading to the gauge so by adjusting the volume I could control the reading on the gauge and then cross check with a meter to get a low gauge reading of 70  is 80 ohms 105 is 72 ohms and 130 is about 35 ohms, does anyone know if there are various types of sender units which have to be matched to the gauge or could it be that after 40 years the gauge needs more power to get it to register anything.

Nick

[zagatoboy]

Bloody hell Nick.....take it out and put a clock in it! lol

[fay66]

Nick,
2  manufacturers of gauges, Jaeger & Veglia Borletti, the senders have to be matched to correct gauge.

Brian
8227

[ncundy]

This very good article may shed some light in your question:

http://www.viva-lancia.com/fulvia/qanda/engine/oilpress2.php

[lancialulu]

Nick

My HF temp gauge works reasonably well (get above 90deg when running round goodwood - got an oil cooler) but the one in my 1600 sport always seems to read very low (you have to tap it to get it to work sometimes) yet the sport often is doing a lot of above 80 mph continental work in the summer (oil cooler as well). I am sure I looked inside my sport gauge (and having already read huib's vivalancia article on oil pressure gauges) couldnt see anything wrong with the gauge. I also think I swapped the senders between the two cars with the HF still reading right and the Sport reading low. At that point I lost interest (rather there were more pressing tasks to get on with!!). I wonder if anyone (Neil??) has a lancia fulvia tech sheet on this little extra to the 1600 fulvia??

Tim

[peterbaker]

I thought I was the only one who had to tap the gauge!

[lancialulu]

Nick

I have sent you an email with a specification list of VDO senders.

Tim

[Neil]

Tim, I spoke to Nick earlier and mentioned he should fit a VDO gauge and sender as per the works rally cars, I have on mine, unless the VDO sender will work with a standard gauge?

[Nick Gramaglia]

Thanks for the replies and also the spec sheet Tim, I ordered a Smiths sender / adaptor yesterday which seems to have a similar range to what I need.

I will let you know if it springs into action.

Nick

[chris]

yes, 'tapping' is nearly always the answer, we all used to and I know of owners over the years who sent their gauges for repair that had nothing wrong with them. The clue to it being 'stuck' is that the dial is lodged further over than zero (to the left) when it's 'parked' and the engine turned off.