MGB: Finally!

Just a "thanks for the help" to you boys and girls for all of the suggestions on my cooling "problem". After a few fairly inexpensive diagnostics, I finally went with the in-line 15 ohm resistor in the sending circuit and the guage (and car) works exactly as it should given the conditions. Maybe it was just a calibration issue on that temp guage. The guy who fixes our regular boring cars invited me over Monday because he has some neat tool that measures the internal head temp without touching the coolant. I'll let him give me a read just as an insurance policy, but I'm confidant we're OK. In addition, I installed the "special tuning" front air dam tonight and it looks sharp in rubber bumper black. Thanks again. I hope I can provide a pearl or 2 of MGb wisdom in the future!

Glad you figured it out. I'm having a temp guage issue too. I've replaced everything except the water pump, sender and stabilizer. I even checked it out with my mechanic's heat gun and it measured 180 on the t-stat housing. I'm pretty sure it's the stabilizer, but It's hard not to think it the guage is wrong!

You will!! Good to hear!!

If your guage is not working or reading way low it may be the voltage stabilizer.

If it is reading higher than the measured temperature with some other device, it could either be the sending unit or the calibration on the guage itself. The extra resistor, I mentioned in another thread, is to adjust the guage range down so as to correct a guage that is reading slightly high; without having to take the guage out and physically recalibrate it; Or to keep changing sending units till you find an accurate match to your guage.

The adjustment I used is a 15 Ohm 1 watt resistor attached to the end of the sensor wire before it goes onto the temperature sensor on the engine. Get a male and a female plug end and the thing can be installed (or removed) in seconds. Just make sure that neither the wire or the resistor can touch any metal in the engine compartment. If it does "ground out" it will cause the guage to go to it's maximum reading. I used heat shrink to cover it all.

Those digital guns are pretty cool. Good luck!

Dwaine. I used your method of 15 ohms, 1/2 watt cuz thats what Radio Shack had. Also took your advice with the m/f connector splice. Looks like its reading a tad low but I'll take it. Thanks again. The other guages read OK.