476 replies to this topic

[Liz Clare]

To be honest Liz unless the guages are really doing strange things I wouldnt be too worried about calibrating them.

They werent the finest bits of measuring equipment when they were new.

Your fuel guage is okay if it moves the right way. If it says full or pretty close when you fill the car up that was about what they did when new.

Your oil guage should read a bit above the bottom when you start it up and idle. Once its warm at idle it wont show a huge deflection anyway. It will come up at revs not too far above idle and will sit fairly well in a bout the same spot.

Work out where its roughly normal spot is and remember it. Sometimes when warm and at idle it can read close to zero. Did that from new anyway.

Temp guage will come up and sit again around the same spot. Again find out where normal range is. The biggest problem you face with a temp guage isnt it going up. Its when it goes down you hit the panic button. Usually means youve lost your coolant. If it does this then goes back up it starts getting expensive quickly.

Again with the volts it should sit in a normal type spot. It will probably flicker with things such as the blinker. Nothing to worry about.

The oil water andvolts guages are roughly set so that they sit at or around half deflection when things are normal.

If they are around this position I wouldnt worry too much about the expense of calibration.

The tacho is generally pretty good with its readings but a hundred or so out again is nothing really to worry about.

If the guages were high quality stuff from the factory none of the race teams would have bothered putting aftermarket stuff in.

The race teams also used to run guages and lights, well one light.

They added guages but kept the switches for indicator lights as well.

They put the output of the switches to a big light you will see on most of the cars of the era.

If the light went on it meant you had a drama and you needed to pay attention to the guages to find out what it was.

Thanks for that, Rob. I'm sure you are right in what you say.

 

Yes, the water temp and volts seem okay to me. Fuel is a bit out I think because it only reads a max 3/4 when I fill the tank and I tend to refill when it reads 1/4 because I don't trust it...or myself seeing as I've become accustomed to having an idiot light for fuel in the daily

 

I've been quite slack with my other Torana, which has never had a working fuel gauge, odometer or speedo so I was trying to get in early and have this car all sorted out at the beginning of my ownership.

 

Cheers,

 

Liz

[Rockoz]

If its only reading 3/4 there is a good chance it will be the float for the guage sender.

Might have gotten a small hole in it over the years, which was actually quite common, and it has slightly filled with fuel, causing it to not float as high

[Max's SS]

Yes, the water temp and volts seem okay to me. Fuel is a bit out I think because it only reads a max 3/4 when I fill the tank and I tend to refill when it reads 1/4 because I don't trust it...or myself seeing as I've become accustomed to having an idiot light for fuel in the daily 

 

 

My fuel gauge reads the same. Did read some time ago that the fuel tanks are not well earthed and this may be the problem ??

[Liz Clare]

If its only reading 3/4 there is a good chance it will be the float for the guage sender.

Might have gotten a small hole in it over the years, which was actually quite common, and it has slightly filled with fuel, causing it to not float as high

Oh okay, thanks Rob.

 

So I could just take it out of the tank and do a trial and error sort of adjustment on it, assuming it doesn't have the hole in it as you've suggested? I'll have a look in the service manual to check how to access it, I only remember the other car's sender location.

 

Cheers,

 

Liz

[Liz Clare]

Yes, the water temp and volts seem okay to me. Fuel is a bit out I think because it only reads a max 3/4 when I fill the tank and I tend to refill when it reads 1/4 because I don't trust it...or myself seeing as I've become accustomed to having an idiot light for fuel in the daily 

 

 

My fuel gauge reads the same. Did read some time ago that the fuel tanks are not well earthed and this may be the problem ??

Hi Steve,

 

Yep, another potential bad Earth. I have heard about that now that you mention it. Will check it out

 

Cheers,

 

Liz

[Max's SS]

Yep, another potential bad Earth. I have heard about that now that you mention it. Will check it out 

 

If you do sort this one out Liz...let us know the solution. Thanks.

[Liz Clare]

Yep, another potential bad Earth. I have heard about that now that you mention it. Will check it out 

 

If you do sort this one out Liz...let us know the solution. Thanks.

Will do, Steve.

 

Cheers,

 

Liz

[torana74]

re the ford internals in the starter old  starters,  a XF armature was used as it had thicker windings.  You had the change the bush behind the starter drive also as it was different length to be used with the older metal forks which holdens ran.  Effectively it gave you a higher torque starter. These days  the reduction gear ones walk all over that combination, but if someone was a stickler for orginality....

 

With regards to the relay,i would try to keep it but also try to wire it in a way as to be able to hide it in an inconspicuous spot.  Unless  you have all new wiring, new plugs/pins/ new perfect switches etc, there will always be some element of voltage drop by the time battery power gets it's way around back to the starter solenoid. In a perfect world it 'shouldn't'  be needed but reality has many conditions attached.

 

Gorgeous car and super well done. Awesome to see you out and enjoying it

[Liz Clare]

re the ford internals in the starter old  starters,  a XF armature was used as it had thicker windings.  You had the change the bush behind the starter drive also as it was different length to be used with the older metal forks which holdens ran.  Effectively it gave you a higher torque starter. These days  the reduction gear ones walk all over that combination, but if someone was a stickler for orginality....

 

With regards to the relay,i would try to keep it but also try to wire it in a way as to be able to hide it in an inconspicuous spot.  Unless  you have all new wiring, new plugs/pins/ new perfect switches etc, there will always be some element of voltage drop by the time battery power gets it's way around back to the starter solenoid. In a perfect world it 'shouldn't'  be needed but reality has many conditions attached.

 

Gorgeous car and super well done. Awesome to see you out and enjoying it

Thanks for that,

 

The relay is up in the front left guard so it's already inconspicuous, I was just suspicious that it was the cause of the delayed start.

 

I'll most likely get the reduction gear starter and check all the Earths too.

 

It's back in the workshop and I already miss it

 

Cheers,

 

Liz

[koalasprint]

Hi Liz, the fuel sender can be tested before you pull it out. Disconnect the wire at the sender. Use a multi-meter on the resistance setting and connect it across the sender terminal and earth. If the tank is full it should read about 10 ohms. Half a tank is 22 ohms and empty is 73 ohms. You can also test the tank earthing in a similar way. Check the resistance of the tank to earth. It should be less than 1 ohm. the metal plate around the sender in particular should be checked.

Don't try to pull the sender out of the tank unless the fuel level is below the sender hole for obvious reasons.

[Liz Clare]

Hi Liz, the fuel sender can be tested before you pull it out. Disconnect the wire at the sender. Use a multi-meter on the resistance setting and connect it across the sender terminal and earth. If the tank is full it should read about 10 ohms. Half a tank is 22 ohms and empty is 73 ohms. You can also test the tank earthing in a similar way. Check the resistance of the tank to earth. It should be less than 1 ohm. the metal plate around the sender in particular should be checked.

Don't try to pull the sender out of the tank unless the fuel level is below the sender hole for obvious reasons.

Thank you very much, Steve.

 

That's really helpful detail, I even have a multimeter somewhere (a present from my dad) so I'll do the checks when the car comes back home.

 

Cheers,

 

Liz

[Rockoz]

Must say its been great reading this thread Liz.

And what is even better is you have asked some questions.

Best of all you have taken notice of the information.

Had some people here over the years that ask for advice and get the best available information anywhere.

The guys here are the greatest knowledge base around.

But some dont take the advice.

Then come back and say their mate down the road says different.

You can ask anything here and someone will have the perfect answer for you.

Looking forward to more posts.

[Liz Clare]

Must say its been great reading this thread Liz.
And what is even better is you have asked some questions.
Best of all you have taken notice of the information.
Had some people here over the years that ask for advice and get the best available information anywhere.
The guys here are the greatest knowledge base around.
But some dont take the advice.
Then come back and say their mate down the road says different.
You can ask anything here and someone will have the perfect answer for you.
Looking forward to more posts.

Thank you very much for the kind words, Rob. I’m glad the thread has been a good read, I was a bit hesitant in starting one but I’m really glad I did.

Where would I be without GMH-Torana? There’s so many things that I would not know about without this Forum.

 

 100_Side Shot taken at Raymond Terrace IMG_5655 copy.jpg   448.46K   16 downloads

 

A pic from a couple of weeks ago

Edit: I've just changed this pic because it was a double post and I don't want to bore people with the same pic again..
Cheers,

Liz


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited by Liz Clare, 22 January 2018 - 04:53 PM.

[Bigfella237]

How could you get bored looking at that?!

[77lx308]

Looking great Liz

 

My gauge has never worked well.

Serviced the tank and replaced the float/sender unit.

Checked all the earths when putting it back together.

The only thing I have not done is rerun a wire all the way from the dash back.....

As someone said - not great gauges....you just sort of work out for your car what is empty and what is full. The best I get is half a tank on the gauge.

[Liz Clare]

Looking great Liz

 

My gauge has never worked well.

Serviced the tank and replaced the float/sender unit.

Checked all the earths when putting it back together.

The only thing I have not done is rerun a wire all the way from the dash back.....

As someone said - not great gauges....you just sort of work out for your car what is empty and what is full. The best I get is half a tank on the gauge.

Thanks Mike,

 

Yeah, I'll check all the Earths and I'm sure you're right there about the gauges. I'm probably being overly paranoid about running out of petrol. I guess I've become used to the plastic car with it's digital readouts and idiot fuel light

 

I can't wait to get her back home again, this weekend hopefully after a final buff

 

Cheers,

 

Liz

[Toranamat69]

My fuel gauge was reading 3/4 when full and empty at about 1/3 tank. This sort of thing annoys me so I drained the tank, removed the sender and bent the arm a bees dick and I jagged it spot on. Might take a couple of goes if you don't get it spot on.

[Liz Clare]

My fuel gauge was reading 3/4 when full and empty at about 1/3 tank. This sort of thing annoys me so I drained the tank, removed the sender and bent the arm a bees dick and I jagged it spot on. Might take a couple of goes if you don't get it spot on.

Yep, mine's the same. I'll check the Earth and the resistance first then have a go at the adjustment. I'm going to have to write myself a list of electrical things to check

 

My other car is a shocker, fuel reads full all the time but I reckon that is an Earthing issue from what people have suggested on here so I'll definitely be looking at that one too.

 

Cheers,

 

Liz

[Rockoz]

As I said though dont get terribly concerned with them.

Provided they have some movement and you can work out the normal ranges you will be fine.

Unfortunately working out empty has only one way.

Run it dry. Keep a jerry can with fuel in the car.

Did this with all my old cars.

Saves stress on longer trips.

My LC with a standard tank at one stage only got about 5mpg.

Hardly practical. But lots of fun. When you were allowed to have a little bit of fun.

[Liz Clare]

I took the SS for a little drive to Phillip Island and travelled with the HVTC and the GTR-XU1 Owners Club of NSW. Everyone was really nice and kept an eye on me during our travels.

 

I got the nickname "Speedy" but not because I was fast, my driving ability and confidence need to improve a bit to match the car

 

Two very busy days at Phillip Island spent talking to so many people, didn't see much racing and didn't take any photos..had a fantastic time

 

I also made a trip to Port Macquarie to catch up with an old friend who is also a Torana owner.

 

Anyway, here's a few pics.

 

 101_Visit to Gippsland Motor Museum with HVTC & GTR-XU1 Owners Club of NSW IMG_6004 copy.jpg   395.3K   7 downloads

We visited the Gippsland Motor Museum..

 

 102_The SS back where it started at Wauchope NSW IMG_6069 copy.jpg   256.58K   7 downloads

The SS at its selling dealer in Wauchope, NSW.

 

 103_Visiting an old friend at Port Macquarie NSW IMG_6064 copy.jpg   277.87K   7 downloads

Visiting my friend with his Tangerine car.

 

Cheers,

 

Liz

 

 

 

 

..and back in its new home

 

 104_SS in its new home IMG_5974 copy.jpg   170.57K   7 downloads

 

I added about 2500 Kms to the clock and she ran perfectly

 

Cheers,

 

Liz

[308 Sunbird]

Great photos Liz love the one coming out of the original dealer

[cameron]

Car looks great.

Well done.

 

Cameron

[koalasprint]

Hi Liz, car is looking good. How did you go with the gauges?

[Liz Clare]

Great photos Liz love the one coming out of the original dealer

 

 

Car looks great.

Well done.

 

Cameron

 

Thanks Stuart & Cameron, Heaps of people took pics of the car on the trip and at Phillip Island too and there are a few around on Fb. Even the cops drove into the Maccas carpark just to take a pic, I was very careful not to speed after that though

Hi Liz, car is looking good. How did you go with the gauges?

Thanks Steve, I have to admit to being slack when it comes to the gauges. I do have the correct oil pressure sender installed now but I still need to get the gauge looked at. There's a place in Newcastle that has been recommended to me by another hatch owner so I'll get organised and take it in.

 

I now know how low I can run the fuel gauge without running out, thanks to getting a little lost out in the Victorian countryside with a couple of other club members who were nice enough to keep me in their sights.

 

Cheers,

 

Liz

[purrlx]

Very nice, good to see it out racking up the km's. Pretty cool pic with the original dealer.