Nisonger Instruments Mamaroneck , NY

I need to alert my fellow British car owners about a very disappointing experience I had with Nisonger Intruments in Mamaroneck, NY.
I sent my Smiths gauges to Nisonger for repair.
All my gauges were functioning normally but needed a cosmetic overhaul. Two of the gauges were returned to me with less than desirable results. The oil pressure gauge was not accurately functioning and the Kienzle clock had a cracked lens. I sent them back to Nisonger under their one year guarantee. The oil pressure gauge was again sent back to me not functioning correctly. The clock was not functioning at all. Despite being under a year Guarantee I was charged $35 dollars by Nisonger for some bench testing service charge. I called Nisonger and spoke with Peter Bayer. I pointed out these problems and that my gauges were under a year guarantee. He did not want to take any responsibility for anything that happened at Nisonger. He also addressed me in a condescending manner.
I sent these gauges to be repaired at my expense at a reliable company. They were able to repair the oil gauge but told me that the Kienzle clock was not repairable.
Nisonger also tried to charge me $30 dollars for some unneeded bulb boots.
There are are other choices when it comes to gauge repair. I hope that relaying my my bad experience with Nisonger and Peter Bayer will caution you using this this company.

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I know we generally avoid negative vendor reviews on the Forum so I won’t comment on DrD’s experience other than to say if anyone is unconvinced I will be happy to PM my experience with the Boys in the Bronx and Peter B.

I would like to hear of a demonstrated good instrument rebuilder as the main odometer on my car has failed.

Les,

Call Morris Mintz and ask him if he can help

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Much appreciated John!

Can they re calibrate a Speedo just by telling them the difference?

Generally they have you measure the number of turns of the speedo cable when the car is rolled 1/100 of a mile (52’ 9.6"). Pretty easy to set-up and take several readings to assure a reliable number.

I’ll second the recommendation for Morris Mintz at West Valley Instruments. He’s modified my Tach to work with a 123 electronic distributor and it’s perfect; modified my clock to use an outside AA battery and it’s perfect and recently recalibrated my speedo. Great work and quick turnaround at a fair price.

I used to use Nisonger but had some unfortunate experiences.

Andy 69 S2 FHC

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I know but annoying
I can’t believe someone doesn’t has a set calculation from 288 to 307 or 353

I suspect there are just too many variables to be assured of a good result every time, including tire size, tire brand, tire wear.

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I don’t know about recalibration, but I had a speedometer shop in Denver make up a gear box that they spliced into my speedometer cable that corrected the speedometer to read correctly when I changed from a 3.54 diff to a 3.058. I provided them with the old and new differential ratios and my speedometer cable, marked where I wanted the gear box spliced in. They cut the cable and put on the correct fittings to connect to their gear box. That box is about the size of a pack of Camels and sits above the transmission. My speedometer reads accurately.

Just had my combo oil/temp gauge rebuilt by Nisonger, they did a very nice job, however their turnaround time was 6 weeks or better [ actually took 7.5 weeks, ] and took 9weeks from my home and back, very slow service.
I have just sent my spare combo gauge to West Valley and they report a two week turnaround, comparison quality of repair is yet to be noted.

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Someone here recommended West Valley Instruments a few years back so I had them do my gauges as well. My experience with them was uneventful. Price to do all gauges on my '50 '120 was approximately $1750 in 2018. Turnaround was about 90 days. They look and function great. At the outset and upon receipt of your gauges, they’ll ask you whether you want them to be made functional to full blown restoration. As mine had a lot of flaking paint, a frozen tach, non-functional fuel gauge, frozen odometer wheels etc., I told them to do a full blown restoration on all. Making everything functional again doesn’t take them long as they say they have all parts needed in house – it’s what they call “the art work” (repainting the dial faces, needles, lettering, etc.) that sucks up the time – some of which they have to subcontract out.

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Ditto. Yes, a bit slow, but we’re in the middle of the pandemic. Perfect work, I am very pleased with the result.

West Valley have now just mailed my combo gauge , with a 4 day turnaround.
Now that’s service. Calif have a pandemic and fires.

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Following the receipt of Richard A’s Clock & Oil Press. Gauge for Warranty Service in August of ’19, we e-mailed him the following film clip of his Oil Press. Gauge (that we had originally rebuilt and shipped back to him 9 months earlier on 11/17/18) being Tested on our Smiths “Factory Thermal Segment Gauge Tester”.

The film clip clearly shows that the Gauge was functioning at the correct Ohm Range at each of the (2) pr. of Calibration Dots found at the bottom of the Gauge Face. We film all Gauges returned for warranty repair, that if when tested are shown to be working properly; this allows the customer to see the actual test results. If a Gauge is shown not to be working properly, it is promptly repaired and returned to a Customer at no Charge. In all fairness, if a Gauge is found to be working properly (as Richard A’s was), the Customer is charged a minimal test fee plus return shipping costs.

I tried to explain to Richard A. over the phone that proper grounding of this Oil Press. Gauge and companion Sender was crucial to the operation of the Gauge and that as such, no thread sealant should be used during the installation of the Sender. Because we clear coat the cases/housings of every gauge during the course of a rebuild to help deter the formation of rust in the future, the case may not be properly grounded thus it is best to attach a dedicated ground wire to the mounting stud on the back of the Gauge. More than likely, proper grounding of the Sender and the Gauge would have solved any problem that Richard A. was having with the Gauge.

Even under the best of circumstances the OEM PE2300/00 Oil Press. Gauges and companion PTR1801-06 Senders have been problematical for many years which is why in late 2018 Smiths introduced a replacement for these Gauges that features a modern day “Air Core” movement as opposed to the antiquated original “Thermal Segment” movement. The new Gauges come complete with a matching sender as chronicled in the E-Type Replacement Gauge section of our website, www.nisonger.com.

As far as the Kienzle Clock is concerned, our Clock Tech Danny S. has been servicing Smiths & Kienzle Clocks for over 45 years and probably knows them better than almost anyone in the U.S. He explained to me ( as I tried to explain to Richard A) that “Star Crack” formation under the reset Knob was quite common with the Kienzle XKE Clocks and was caused by the extremely tight tolerance between the reset stem and plastic lens which expands and contracts with changing temperatures; usually these small cracks are hidden by dust that has accumulated under reset knob and only become visible once the lens is cleaned and polished during the course of a rebuild. Since 9 months had passed since he had rebuilt Richard A’s Clock, he couldn’t honestly recall if the lens was cracked at the time that he rebuilt the clock or had occurred subsequently thus we replaced the lens at no charge and absorbed the cost to ship both the Oil Press. Gauge and Clock back to Richard A.

Lastly, All series II & III E-Type Gauges were fitted at the factory with Green Light Filters. It is quite common to find that holes have been burned through the filters over time, thus we remove the remnants during the rebuilding process and provide Green Bulb Boots which restore the original Green Gauge Lighting which is what we did in Richard A”s case. In the 15+ years that we have been providing these bulb boots any comments that we have received about them have always been positive as customers are pleased to have the original Green Instrument lighting restored.

Nisonger has been the Sole & Exclusive Warranty & Service Center for Smiths Instruments since 1949 and we take a great deal of pride in doing every job right and address any Warranty returns in a prompt forthright manner.

Peter Bayer

Thank you Peter for addressing and explaining Dr D’s instrument issues. It is most helpful for those of us attempting have our Smith’s gauges both look and preform like new by Nisonger.
Perhaps your company would extend an invitation for those of us, using this forum, to correct the issues (complaints) that we have had with your company’s service in the past with our returned Smith’s gauges.