Mason alarm

lazyb5 · Post by **lazyb5** » Sat May 21, 2011 10:13 pm

Wow thanks for all the ideas guys and gals. Having read Jaylees scorpio article does anyone know of the resistance through the temp sender cold and hot, I could then check that and determine if the sender is faulty. If anyone can check it cold in the morning i would appreciate it. I checked all the wires on the back of the gauges for shorting, looseness etc and they felt ok. So tomorrow i will start with adys earth strap, check resistance through the sender and then go to the seaside keeping an eye on the gauge.
Thanks again for all the input.
Clive

jaylee · Post by **jaylee** » Sat May 21, 2011 10:29 pm

Quote from my last link earlier on regarding the Ford Scorpio....

"This sensor has a habit, after a few years, of going intermittent or high in value giving rise to low readings on the gauge."

&

"There are two solder joints on the circuit board that are very close and if the solder is a bit on the large side the two 'blobs' make contact. You may find it happens more in winter or cold spells when the board contracts. One member had reported that when the lights were on the gauge behaved itself - believe it or not that was due to the dash panel bulbs warming the circuit board so that it expands. Unbelievable but true!"

The Bongo PCB (from memory) has no solder points & it comprises of a flexible membrane across the back of the dial pod.... I fancy that sometimes it may bend the truth too!??

Northern Bongolow · Post by **Northern Bongolow** » Sat May 21, 2011 10:52 pm

you may well be right jamie,as we know the warning lights often do several jobs,and as they all share the common lives/earths,in theory any fault on one of these circuits can have an effect on the dash.
i dont think its a solder track fault,but an earth circuit fault, hense my initial comments regarding earth's.
we have all been behind a car/trailer with those crazy acting rear lights,usually an earth fault.

ps, why do you need a warning light on the rear wiper !!!, just listen for the dry scraping noise like the rest of us.

jaylee · Post by **jaylee** » Sat May 21, 2011 10:57 pm

Northern Bongolow wrote:just listen for the dry scraping noise like the rest of us.

lazyb5 · Post by **lazyb5** » Sun May 22, 2011 10:10 am

Morning all right earth strap undone cleaned vaselined and replaced. Located the sensor live wire fixed and tight, reading 1422 ohms i think with a cold engine. Put it all back together and guess what........it still goes to 10 oclock

bloody cars .Anybody got any other ohms reading for me to check against? Off to the seaside now see you later

Northern Bongolow · Post by **Northern Bongolow** » Sun May 22, 2011 11:52 am

did you try the seperate earth dirrect back to the battery from the temp sender body.

lazyb5 · Post by **lazyb5** » Sun May 22, 2011 6:08 pm

Hi Ady , no didnt have time for that but, ....when i got changed and we all got in turned the alarm/immobiliser off went to start it temp gauge worked normally.

got to my friends to show him the Bongo and ...me if there are 2 Bongos living next to and across from him

When i started from his house gauge again at 10oclock and didnt go beyond 11/12 oclock which makes me think the original damping is back. I will run the seperate earth fro battery to sender one night this week, but i have an idea this is connected to the alarm/imm which was fitted 2 weeks ago maybe this was happening from then and i didnt see it.

stilldesperate · Post by **stilldesperate** » Mon May 23, 2011 7:31 pm

Northern Bongolow wrote:good auto sparky on the case after i could not fix it,he states that the sparky could not find a fault in the circuit/sender or gauge, or wiring, when he did extensive tests. .
he put the fault down to the resister on the back of the gauge.
this is not the fix though,as i have swapped them,and even altered their values and used better quality m.o.d ones,still no fix.

There seems to be a bit of variance of the resistor values on the temp readout, I dont know if it's manufacturing tolerance, old age, or resistance altering once a Bongo has overheated, but there's only 4 or 5 components to the system, and it's pretty easy get to all of them.

I've found the Mason to be reliable, if it's reading wrong, as Ady says, I would look more at the connections. I undamp the temp now using Haydns wire link and a resistor method, but instead of the (fixed) 110 / 120 ohm resistor, I use a variable, that way if it gets too hot, you can turn it down a bit

SD

Diplomat · Post by **Diplomat** » Mon May 23, 2011 8:12 pm

stilldesperate wrote: I undamp the temp now using Haydns wire link and a resistor method, but instead of the (fixed) 110 / 120 ohm resistor, I use a variable, that way if it gets too hot, you can turn it down a bit

SD

Can you give me a link to this link please, SD?

Is the mod. somewhere on the forum?

Frank

missfixit70 · Post by **missfixit70** » Mon May 23, 2011 8:22 pm

Think it's on the coolant alarm factsheet, or on Haydn's website (actually it's Ben's mod

)

stilldesperate · Post by **stilldesperate** » Mon May 23, 2011 9:57 pm

missfixit70 wrote:.......actually it's Ben's mod )

Ooops, thanks Kirsty

I've got a modded unit here I can exchange for you, but it's pretty easy to do, and you can then eliminate the Mason and it's wiring.

SD

missfixit70 · Post by **missfixit70** » Mon May 23, 2011 10:01 pm

The only down side with the temp gauge mod as opposed to the Mason is the lack of a temperature alarm, been glad of that at least once

stilldesperate · Post by **stilldesperate** » Mon May 23, 2011 11:02 pm

missfixit70 wrote:The only down side with the temp gauge mod as opposed to the Mason is the lack of a temperature alarm, been glad of that at least once

I need a speed alarm, Kirsty.....

missfixit70 · Post by **missfixit70** » Mon May 23, 2011 11:04 pm

Oops? Got one of those too

Mason alarm

Re: Mason alarm

Re: Mason alarm

Re: Mason alarm

Re: Mason alarm

Re: Mason alarm

Re: Mason alarm

Re: Mason alarm

Re: Mason alarm

Re: Mason alarm

Re: Mason alarm

Re: Mason alarm

Re: Mason alarm

Re: Mason alarm

Re: Mason alarm