Yep… and, hotted up, those “Reenalt” engines actually ran well.
There were also Spitwad components in the suspensions.
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Yep, the guy I worked for as a teenager used to say that a Spitfire was simply a life-support system for a fairly good front suspension system.
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My guess is they’re like Harbor Freight torque wrenches. Some work well, and some don’t, right out of the box.
If yours behaves well, and it’s readings have been verified by a good quality, hand-held gauge, then I wouldn’t worry about it at all.
My comments were meant for anyone embarking on this conversion. If I were to do it, I’d find a vintage Smiths mechanical gauge, and have it cleaned, checked, and calibrated by a specialist.
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Nisonger in New York has a great mechanical gage system. I have it on my S-ll and it has worked fantastic since I installed it in 2016. You can see it on their web site. Highly recommended.
Below is the first PCB for my stepper motor conversion on the Smith’s gauges. Ignore the wire “pig-tails” and out-sized connectors - those are just for development/debugging purposes. The “needle” is also an ,exceedingly crude hand-formed piece, just so I have something to look at. The final needles will be indistinguishable from the Smith’s originals.
The PCB is 100% functional! Time-permitting, I hope to get at least the temp and OP gauges on my car converted to these movements in the next week. With luck, I may even get all four converted. Next up will be the tach.
The PCB contains a microprocessor, which reads the (modern, solid-state) sender, and controls both the stepper motor and the RGB LED lighting. Installation in the gauges is really simple, once the original bi-metal movement is removed. The modern, solid-state senders provide very deadly accuracy, and the stepper motor movements provide absolutely consistent, repeatable positioning at all times, exactly like on all modern cars.
Regards,
Ray L.
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Wow!!! Amazing work, Ray!
I’m on the verge of dropping some bucks on a mechanical OP gauge from Nisonger or other (either requires putting a Series III bezel on the replacement Series II style gauge). Gonna slow role that decision and watch closely how this story unravels
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Looking good Ray, what microcontroller did you choose for this?
AVR 328. It’s overkill, but cheap in automotive grade.
Regards,
Ray L.
Thanks Ray, BTW, always meant to ask you if you knew Bob LaJeunesse who worked in engine digital efforts at Chrysler roughly around 80’s, a prototypical “geek”.
Don’t recall the name. I was only there for a bit under 2 years - 1/78-9/79. That was a looooooong time ago…
Regards,
Ray L.
Looking great! Awesome work following this post anxiously awaiting ea update. !
Caerbont are the current generation of reproduction Smiths gauges I referred to in my comments above.
In my experience, and based on the feedback of my local instrument specialist, they are fairly poor quality.
Thanks for the heads up I’ll make sure I test it after installing.
Hi Ray,
Outstanding
do you intend to make this available to others, either by selling or sharing the technology, and if so, do you estimate the costs will be reasonable ?
Clearly applicable to other Jag models, the instrumentation is somewhat deficient
kind of like upgrading an F135 with new instruments
That is the plan. It’s certainly not practical as a DIY due to the custom PCBs, surface mount components, and firmware. Cost should be very reasonable - the complete system, with all the new gauge “guts” and new temp/oil senders, should cost less than a single new gauge or sender.
Regards,
Ray L.
Ray, if you’re taking a list of buyers, please put me down. On second thought, don’t put me down; that’s been done repeatedly over my lifetime. Please put me on your list of buyers.
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I purchased some mechanical oil pressure gauges, and a voltmeter gauge for my coupe from Carebont last fall. They are installed and work fine - only one problem - the lighting. They don’t come with a green filter for the light like the stock ones, and use one of these push in bulbs with two exposed wires. Mine came with clear but they sent me green ones on request. The green ones are pathetic - you cannot read the gauges at night even on high setting. I’ve asked for higher power ones but no reply. The bulb holder may accept (haven’t checked) the standard incandescent bulb the E Type uses, but I haven’t inquired to see if they come in green. So as of now can’t recommend these gauges.
Will they accept a green LED?