1972 Granada Mk1 coupe build - Still going... 14-10-2024

So I'm back with a little update. Life was a little too busy this week. I became uncle for the 4th time, my wife celebrated her 45th birthday and we're prepping for our family holiday that will soon come around...

Still having ordered the parts for the solid state VR, I tried to find time to fabricate that. I built the VR last Friday evening. I couldn't before as the parts though cheap took a day or two to get to me. I had a quick think about how to do it so it would sit in the original location. And then I just went for it. Drilled a hole in the original VR housing, attached the solid state VR IC to it so it could function as a heat sink. To be sure I first verified the ground pin was attached to the IC back plate, which it was. I soldered the ground pin to the housing as well. Then I fiddled with the internals of the original VR board. Braking off the original contacts etc. Sanding the remaining stubs so I could solder to them. I attached the two capacitors and was then only left with soldering the IC pins to the matching contacts. This was fiddly as when closing the unit you do not want anything to touch anything it shouldn't. So short insulated wires with only short soldered ends were used. But the flexibility was a bit lacking and as you have no room for long wires they really were just long enough to get in place.






With that done I tested the output. Switching on the 13,54 source there was no smoke or smell coming from the unit. Good first result. Next the multimeter said 4.99v steady. So that was a great second result. I then expanded the circuit on the bench to include the sender and the temp (ex fuel) gauge. I hooked the VR and sender to ground, the gauge to the 4.99v output side and the other end to the signal post on the sender to complete the circuit. I then put the 13,54 volts to the regulator input. With a cold sender the gauge did not move. A good start. I then took some warm tapwater, but the gauge failed to register. I then boiled some water and put it in a ceramic cup. I guess the heat being soaked up by the cup already lowered the temp quite a bit as the gauge read, but only just in the cold scale. Whereas Sam's test had shown water of 85 degrees on a 5v gauge feed to read 2/3rds of the way up on the same gauge. So I boiled some more water and added to the cup. The gauge rose some. I then just poured the water over the sender and it read some more. Ending up about halfway up the gauge. So that is at least encouraging. I didn't burn a single part, but have one spare of it all, so I can if need be redo it a second time.




Now because of the things I told you about above I had no time with the car at all last week apart from one evening of testing the gauge with different signal wires etc. So I've not gotten any further.

Next up is exchanging the sender in the engine and redoing the bench test. This to see where this sender would read on the gauge with water just off the boil being poured over it. This gives me the info I need to decide how to create the water temp circuit. As the engine ecu needs the right sender to switch the fans on in time (now again confirmed that they work, fans on half speed is indiscernible under the hood and in the car, both fans on full speed is when you first hear them) but the gauge might need the other sender to work correctly. This test should tell me if I can use one and piggy back off the feed to the ecu and feed that to the gauge.

But there are more tests to do. In car tests: replace the VR, run engine up to temp and see how it reads with the gauge matched sender (if it even reads as it hasn't for a while) on the original signal wire. Next up replacing that signal wire with the ecu's dash feed wire. See if that changes the reading in any way.

If the sender now reads on the gauge, than (depending on the prior test result of how much deviation there is between senders) a final test may be putting back the right sender for the engine and seeing the readings.

If I do need two senders I'll then plumb one into my coolant hoses for the gauge.

The bad part becomes if the gauge in the car reads nothing even when for instance pouring boiling water over the sender. And as the last in car tests reveiled signal on both the feed post of the gauge as well as the signal post but still no movement of the gauge that may well be an outcome to expect. I don't really know what the fix should then be. I could isolate the gauge from the cluster PCB and just feed it from the VR directly using a wire and a direct new signal line.

I'm pretty eager to see and test, but the heat in the system also means testing is not easy. I've already had my hand sprayed with hot coolant (not burned though). It'll probably be a week before I know all I need to know. But at least getting a reading on the gauge would be a step forward. Before it went to max now it won't move unless grounded (as it goes to max again).

Well how much can one person type about a damned VR/gauge circuit, lol.

Hi,

The EEC-V ecu takes the single wire input for coolant temp from the centre of the V on the front of the engine. This signal is, as far as I´ve been told, used to (help) determine when the cooling fans come on. The ecu also has a feed to the gauge possibly through the dash cluster controller (a seperate orange unit between ecu and dash cluster) that I think also controls the switches on the electronic gearbox behaviour settings (sport, eco, winter). So I'm pretty sure the ecu does something with the sender signal. So this for me would be reason to use the sender that matches the ECU.

Also to help my point along. I've only heard my fans kick in on max speed three times now. Once while testing with Sam, once on the alignment bench after 30+ minutes of idling and once earlier this week. Now, the first two times were on the new sender that matched the gauge and I always felt the fans came on very late! The engine was really hot. This week due to testing I had the original sender back in and low and behold I felt like it kicked in the fans much sooner.

That is why I find repeating the bench test with the engine matched sender important. But feel free to prove me wrong.

I just need more testing done before I can conclude what would be the best way forward.

Yesterday while walking the dog I quickly changed over the senders. Took the engine matched one home and tested with boiling water. No reading on the gauge. I think it just minimally rose off the stop in the bottom, but that is it.

I'd like to conclude that it obviously has a completely different range to the other one. But, I had a hard time even getting resistance readings from it. Also the centre pin that the signal wire connects to could rotate. So maybe that sender is broken? I might have a spare in my other engine, but I might also have had to transfer it over at the time. For the cost, I might just buy a new one to be sure.

Meanwhile as the dash matched sender is now in the car, testing will continue with that and the new VR in place possibly tonight. Slowly but surely I'll get to the bottom of this.

Glad there has been a happy ending to what must have been a horrific ordeal. I have used the Ronald McDonald house charities when my 5 month old (at the time) son was having open heart surgery. What they provide is so helpful at times like those, (so people, always drop your change in the boxes on the counter when you get your big mac... it really does go to a good place). I wish you and your family all the best for the future

My wife and I are both cancer survivors.
My wife lost her left leg due to this cancer. I came out with some kidney damage.
My wife had 3x cancer after and is in remission now after a very taxing few years just behind us.
Buuuut we are all good now and loving life.
Some dates on the calendar are hard to go past and little weird pains can really
scare us both.

Enjoy your meal, take care, look after yourself and family.

Oh and by the way, only just to support Ronald Mc Donald I make it my job to eat at MCD as much as I can.
Has nothing to do with the fact that I might like junk food at all!!
I see this as a support thing!!

Do they still have the Mac Kroket??? I LOVE them!!

Thanks for sharing - reminds me what's really important.

And even more thanks for caring to you all!

Life has never been quite the same after this experience. Although now doing well, there's always the fear of this disease returning. But as long as we have no indication of that we won't think about it too much. But when she's ill or anything we still are more easily spooked.

In general my family is doing well. My wife is chronically ill but doing as good as can be expected and has been stable for quite some time now. I myself suffered a burn-out about 3 years back partly because of what happened to my daughter, but also because of the things I had to deal with regarding my wife and work. But I got very good care and have now been feeling better than ever (apart from an occasional mental dip over the restoration works). My girl is doing great for what can be expected and my boy is a joy to see grow and come into his own. Our marriage has also never been better...

So yeah, pretty happy really. Thanks for caring.

Damn, thats annoying! I had something similar happen, though that was my own fault in forgetting to tighten a hose clamp and dropped it all over a ceramic tiled floor, a little slippery! Can you not get the hose from a car parts place, it's quite low pressure really? Otherwise a hydraulic shop should be able to sort something for you, plenty of them around.



Hope your daughter is doing well, falling off a horse is all part of riding. I hit the ground more than once when I was younger. Helmets might be expensive, but worth it when you need them. The main thing is that she got back on and it didn't stop her wanting to ride.

Yeah that's all it is, annoying really, oh and hard to clean up. There's no water near the garage and no electricity either so we'll see how to best clean up after the holidays.

I too have had the same thing happen before, on my Mustang. I was at the gas station on the hastelweg if you know it and just about to drive off after filling up on LPG when I lost all drive. Huge puddle on the rubberised tiles. Turned out the hardlines between the radiator and automatic had been split and joined with a piece of rubber hose. But as opposed to myself they didn't bother to clean the edges so there was a sharp edge chafing through the rubber.... That was at least a more convenient place!

Yes, I think its more flow rather then pressure. But I've already checked and the hastelweg has at least one or two companies present that do hydraulic hoses etc. and of course also a motor factors, so I think I'll find something suitable. Like you say it's all just annoying but nothing major.

I've checked in a couple of times today but she says she's doing fine. She only feels her fingers a bit but not as much as yesterday. She rode for another two hours today, but she avoided galloping so she's taken a little mental hit non the less. We hope to convince her that this was a fluke and that she can safely gallop around once more tomorrow. And yes, the cap did what it was there to do! So I'm not complaining too much about that. The extra spendings mean I have sacrificed a personal savings can but hey, that's what a good parent does, right?

And I treated myself to the por-15 tank sealer so.... lol