Last time I had the FB out, it spewed some coolant from the cap area when I stopped. Its been losing a little bit of coolant recently, I figure thats how. So my plan was to buy a radiator cap and a set of gauges since the stock temp gauge BARELY moves, ever...useless.

Well the Stant lever vent cap Advance listed is just wrong as can be, not even close. Will return it later today.

The mechanical temp gauge probe is FAT. no way is it going into the stock temp probe location. Not really keen on drilling and tapping anything unless it can be done without taking a bunch of crap apart. Read something about a plug, but thats if you dont have heat?!?!?! and no honecomb...crap these cars are a pain sometimes.

So Id be fine with the radiator hose adapter, but everyone I see online has 1/8 NPT threads. No way will my probe fit into that. Sheesh.

wrong cap and probe so big, I went back to bed rather than work on it today.
sorry more of a rant than a cry for help.

 

it may be easier to just fix the stock gauge? if you unplug the water temp connector, i believe 50ohms of resistance between the wire and ground is 80c, which is a little under normal operating temp. there are a couple more values in the FSM's too.

then you can warm it up, and check the sender.

 

I read that 1/8 npt is about 9.9mm...that might work, from the pictures, it really didnt look like it would fit..... I will measure the probe.
I like the gauges and I need something to fill the hole in my dash. I already have an oil pressure gauge installed, so I can just move the line over to the new cluster for that.

Yeah i suppose a new factory sending unit might do the trick as well for the stock gauge. It is like the gas gauge, it works when it wants to, but even when it does, it never moves more than a tiny bit.

 

Now im thinking about the heater hose. That I could do myself with some plumbing fittings.
Off to home depot.

 

This is what i made....I used one of the adapters from the gauge kit and added it to another adapter into the Tee...mostly for spacing...I got the tip of the probe JUST into the flow area. Did not want to obstruct the flow, and also did not want the probe too far away.
Good news is I think the coolant out of the cap might just have been the overflow hose...it was cracked where it connected to the radiator.
I got the right cap by getting the number (227) off the one that was on there.
I let it warm up a long time and my gauge read 160. Took a short spin around the block and it held there. Factory gauge is still hooked up, might look into a new sender for that one.
Wont win a beauty contest, but you can tell from the rest of what you can see, thats not an issue for me. Not yet anyway.
My goal is to get the thing where I can drive it on a whim, without cringing about some issue it has driving me nuts. Its like, instead of just saying, "ahhhhh, that was fun" after getting home, Im more like "Oh crap, now I gotta fix this this and this."

 

That's ingenious, you can also get an adaptor and use the fitting in the back of the water pump that the choke temp switch is in. Though it does take making some mess I have also seen the thermostat neck used.

 

Here is what I did. I'm running two aftermarket water temp gauges. One one each side the the thermostat.

This is an S4 aluminum water pump housing I adapted to my 12A. I also powder coated it.


For the water pump neck, I used an old school neck. It has the perfect place to tap for a temp sender.

 

My sending unit was shot. The dash gauge barely moved.
Using two Radio Shack resistors I was able to verify the dash gauge was OK and then replaced the sending unit.

 

JUst an update....in the interest of full disclosure.....
The temp gauge only reads when the heat is on! Heh heh....turn the **** to cold and there goes the reading....i guess its the outlet I have it on. Maybe the inlet would be better, but still it would not be flowing unless the heat is on....so theres that.
And, my hose blew off my plumbing pipe and I lost all my coolant. Luckily it was 2 blocks away. Even the lethargic factory gauge came to life then let me tell ya!
Got to get some proper hose barbs for it. Jeez. or just get one of those radiator hose adapters instead.

 

The inlet would work the same way you have it now...only when the cabin heat is on. Go the with one of those radiator hose adapters for an easy/quick fix.

I don't like putting any additional failure points with adapters. You found out the hard way.

 

My recommended place is still the back of the water pump, worst leak I have gotten was a small drip, tightened the fittings and no more drip. If you do use the rad hose adaptor, you want the top hose if I remember correctly.