S1 Ammeter

[roy1944]

Had to be relayed home after the engine died. On investigation I discovered that the ammeter had gone open circuit (hence the slight burning spell earlier) and cut off the volts to the regulator so everything went dead. I am having trouble finding the right ammeter with a black bezel, and marked C (charge) and D(discharge) with no numbers, with spade terminals and 2in in dia.
Has anyone any ideas of a supplier.

[Heuer]

If your car has an alternator consider fitting a Voltmeter instead: http://etypeuk.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=166

Caerbont sell Lucas Ammeters if you are wedded to one: http://www.caigauge.com/ You may need to swap over your existing bezel. Second hand Ammeters are readily available and come up on eBay or try Richard Smith.

[Larry Wade]

Used ammeters come up for sale on ebay quite frequently.

Larry

[andrewh]

slightly off subject, but can anyone tell me how to remove the bezels on the series 1 instruments, and can you get new seals for them?

Also, looking for a supplier of the special tool for removing the toggle switch bezels please?

thanks Andrew

[Heuer]

JEC sell a toggle switch removal tool and available from their shop. To remove the instrument bezels it is best to use a small flat head screwdriver. Place the instrument face down on a piece of cloth and then use the screwdriver to ease up one of the tabs. You should then be able to take the bezel off. The faces of the small instrument are made of two pieces so try and get the upper part off before removing the lower part to prevent damage to the needle. Rubber seals are available from Speedograph Richfield.

[ChrisC]

David beat me to it

The JEC tool is about ?10 and its a pretty substantial tool.

[andrewh]

Wow , how about that for reponse. Just sitting at the kitchen table stripping the panel down and was rather thinking I would have to wait until tomorrow but can kick on now. Will get on to Speedograph Richfield and JEC first off monday. thanks chaps.

[ChrisC]

You may well find Andrew that the rubber seal has carbonised and stuck both the glass and bezel to the instrument casing - you just have to be a little bit stronger to twist them apart. Dont bend the tabs up too much BTW as they snap and then sadly its new bezel time.... and I never found someone who sells the right ones..

I was lucky and had a couple of old gauges I could steal a replacement bezel from.

[wol916]

Andrew,
You could always try the cheap way to get the switches out. I inherited a set of switch removing tools from a relative who was a Jaguar mechanic and his were all home made from a piece of tube with the end filed away to leave the two points and a hole drilled at the other end for a T bar. They work a treat, save money and you get the satisfaction of having made them yourself.

Warren

[andrewh]

Ha!! indeed a cheaper and more satifying way to do it, thanks.

Having just removed a rim on the temperature gauge there is a mass of melted resin all over the outer part of the glass. I assume that there is a rubber ring under the rim and this has spewed out due to age or heat or both. Anyone know whether its possible to get this bit as well. I am trying to avoid sending to a restorer to do what I am doing, cost me ?50 minimum an instrument and take 12 months and a load of nagging before I get it back!

[ChrisC]

the bezel will clean up trust me :)

the 'resin' you can see is the galvanised rubber I mentioned and dont worry it scrapes off. You can replace the glass (if you need to) and this rubber seal is merely a length of round soft rubber cut to size.

Personally I shot blasted the bezels and then re-sprayed them satin black, but you could do it manually with some wire wool.

You can get all the bits from Speedograph or even ebay sellers. I restored all my gauges myself - its not hard it just takes patience. Whilst you have the gauges apart you might want to think about an upgrade to LED lighting... a number of people have posted how-to's.