GTM Coupé Page 51

January 2011

Another year starts, and with the Coupé emerging from under the snow, I took the chance to install the 3 in 1 gauge I had bought. This will need a separate wire run for the oil pressure reading, as I want to keep the "idiot" light as well. I will also need to fit a t-piece to allow both senders to be fitted, this has been order and I'm waiting for it to be delivered.

gauge in place

A late delivery by the post office, sees the required t-piece arrive, along with a short length of pipe to allow the assembly to be mounted remotely, as it has been found that all the weight of the senders, on the end of the t-piece, causes them to pull out of the block. There also is a high pressure (1.8bar/26psi) oil pressure switch, this will replace the larger adjustable one currently fitted.

required parts

1.8Bar switch

parts assembled

During the month I have got a few things done to the coupé, in between a couple of trips to work in it.

rooftop view

First thing done was to replace the old fusebox, as the connections had started to corrode. On the old box, there were only four fuses with a couple of wires bridging pair of fuses, in order to tidy things up, I fitted a metal strip as a "busbar" joining sets of three fuses. The first three are permanent live, the next three switched.
I still need to clean & tighten up the Lucar connectors and fit a sleeve of heat shrink.

fusebox

With the fusebox in place, I connected up the oil pressure sender and switch. This needed a separate wire run down the tunnel and an earth connection.

sender and switch

As the dash was removed for fitting the gauge, I took the chance to fit a resistor to the heater motor, to make it run slow when you don't need full speed, at the same time, I fitted an extra switch connected to a Ford Ka heater valve, this will allow me to turn off the hot water to the heater matrix, while still allowing the water to circulate. I had notice in the few hot days we had last year, that sometimes it would be nice to have some cool air blowing around, something that was impossible until now.