Interesting how different cars behave differently with differing stats (how many versions of 'differ' can be added in one short sentence ).Just popped out to the pile of bits to see what i had got -an 82 WAS fitted,and CW has supplied another 82 to go back in.My guage ALWAYS hung dead center,and unbeknown to me the cooling system was in a terrible state.Even the sender was just a lump of iron.
So it will be interesting to see how she will read with everything new installed - i'm wondering if the crud in the system was making it run/read hotter? Must have an influence. I am kind of expecting it to then read lower...
Being nosey Kevin,how long ago did the bottom hose fail? I.E has the system been flushed out in recent years?

Being pedantic (what me?) it wasn't the hose that failed as such, it was the jubilee clip. Because of the history of the car, I replaced the vunderable hoses and clips about 2 years ago when I first got the car. The clips were stainless steel, but the worm drives are some horrible base metal - the worm failed allowing the clip to loosen and in due course for the hose to fall off and dump the contents of the cooling system along the road.

When this happenned, having got home, I then topped up the system with plain water (didn't have any anti-freeze to hand at the time) and drained and refilled with 50:50 antifreeze a couple of weeks ago. I didn't get much scaling come out either when I have drained the system recently or when I drained it when I first bought the car. The car spent most of its life in Epsom, so I suppose Epsom Salts is good for keeping the cooling system clear?

I've ben somewhat distracted with other things of late, so haven't been able to lok at the problem as I'd intended. I'm going to get a new 'stat from Chris Witor and see what that does and maybe swap the sender from the TR as well. I have managed to fit the electronic ignition, though.

Kevin

I popped a new thermostat in my car yesterday just to see what would happen.

There's decent output from the heater but the gauge still settles at about 1/4 so I conclude that the (new) radiator is just very efficient and that the gauge or sender may be a little tempremental too.

I'm resurrecting this thread because I'm having more or less the same problems as reported by Kevin. I have flushed my cooling system several times, drained the coolant from the block, had a brand new 82 degree thermostat from CW, a brand new temperature sender (okay, it was from Rimmers) and a brand new radiator cap. The radiator had a slight leak in it from the top seam, which I've had professionally fixed and the radiator descaled.
The temperature gauge is basically on the (right) end stop within about 3 to 4 minutes of running the car.
Very annoying - is this an electrical problem?

Hi Allen

Firstly does the car seem to physically show the signs of overheating. If not then it could simply be that your sender is of the wrong spec. for the gauge.

You could get hold of a known good one from another engine and pop that in and see what happens. I cannot offer you my spare from the sad PI ....... because I have had to use it in my own car when I removed the defunct capillary water temperature gauge!

You can check the gauge by substitution if you have a spare one of the same type as fitted to the Triumph. Either swap the instruments (a right pain) or put a feed to the spare loose gauge and earth it via the the sender (these systems work on the earth return principle).

If that still shows overheating then your block may need to be cleaned out with a flushing agent and any points at which you can look into the block/head checked for evidence of silting up.

When you did all the work did you back flush the block - and use a flushing agent? While it is not guaranteed to clear accumulations of crud in the water jacket back flushing may shift something - and with luck you will see evidence of muck coming out in the water giving you an idea that there is a problem there. Note that you will usually get some muck coming out in the water ..... it is the quantity that counts

Finally, are all your hoses sound? It is not unknown for a house to delaminate and an internal flap of rubber to block the hose.

Finaly finaly is your water pump functioning OK?

And finaly finaly finaly did you check your thermostat before fitting it?

Ted

Hello Allen,

another avenue is an air lock, which tends to happen after a complete refill. It helps to have the heater set to hot when first starting the engine.

Incidentally, you can swop the fuel gauge for the temperature gauge as an instrument check. (I imagine a piece of extension cable would be quicker than physically removing the gauges.)

Alec

I'm not experiencing noticeable overheating problems, i.e. the car is not boiling over in traffic, the Kenlowe is not coming on, etc.
I think I'm going to try swapping the sender first - I seem to remember noticing a jump in temp after fitting that but I put it down to other factors.
Thanks for all the tips.

i have a Rimmers sender in the estate and no way of comparing with how it was before as the gauge didn't work when I bought her and she had a water pump leak!

I have changed the rad on her once and 'stat in attempts to make the gauge sit in a position that I am more comfortable with. All to no avail. The gauge sits above the middle and occassionally nudges 3/4. I have now decided that the sender from Rimmers is bespoke to any car with that thread!
My Dad has a similar problem on his GT6 with a new rad, pump,hoses, rebuilt engine etc.....and a sender from Rimmers.

Colin.

Hi Allen,

i would agree that the 'new' sender probably has the wrong characteristics. However, there is one more thing to check. Does the fuel gauge read high too? Both run from a stabilised 10V supply and if that goes wrong, both gauges will read incorrectly. The stabiliser is fitted to the back of the speedo.

It is a bit crude though - a heated bi-metalic strip that relies on the slow action of the gauges to integrate out the voltage variations! More modern, electronic types are available (and to be honest not exactly rocket science to build one either!).

My money's still on the temperature sender though. Can you find an old one to try? (I might be able to.....)

Cheers,
Mike.

Hi Mike,
Having a scout about on some other fora (see, I didn't forget) seems to suggest that temperature senders are very variable anyway. I think I'll order a new one from CW and see if it makes any difference.
Had a good drive out yesterday with no sign of overheating.
As far as I know the fuel gauge seems to function fine - put it this way, I've never run out of fuel and when it's full, it says it's full!
Cheers