Electrics: 164: temp sensor

[Mike B]

Hi managed to take pics in between rain DOH it has not rained here for a couple of weeks .
The black line marks a very small groove in the shaft , its the centre line.
When pressure is dropped on one side of the piston [ shaft ] it moves to that side and the nylon plunger drops into a depression actuating the switch and visa versa . You must remove the switch when you bleed the brakes as the piston centralises and could break off the end of the nylon plunger. I have known this to happen once.
here are the pics.
Now my alternator has died [ not the regulator ] probable the diodes . got to wait for the rain to stop again Oh Well.
Regards
Mike B

[woodturner-fran]

Many thanks MikeB

Yes that is exactly how mine looks - what raised my suspicion was that I thought the end of the nylon shaft was a little rough - and when you talked about having to remove it when bleeding out, well I thought there's what could be wrong.

So is that pic there you just posted of the switch "bad" or "good" - in other words is it meant to look like that - flat at the bottom of the switch?

I must go back and look at mine again, but from memory, I didn't think that the end of the switch would fit down into the groove in the piston. Now my piston is very slightly off centre, but you can still see both sides of the groove, if you know what I mean.

Fran


Ps, just back from a show here today - what a mud bath it was, I was very lucky to get out without a tow! Even luckier was my nephew in a mini cooper who also got out without a tow. Bloody weather in this country is such a PITA sometimes. Another show was cancelled only on Sat - would have had an attendance of 50,000 - can you imagine the losses on that one!!

[Mike B]

Hi That is exactly how it should look.
it sits on top of the piston [ shaft ] till the pressure drops one side or the other then when the piston moves left or right it drops into a deep groove and actuates the switch. the length shown is a good switch fitted to my 164 removed yesterday then refitted.
As a side when I started the car to check that it still worked I noticed the alternator had blown as said, modified a spare 240 one a 55amp one and fitted see an earlier post ref spares, still it had been on her a good few years .
Regards
Mike B

[Mike B]

It dose not sit in the very fine groove , it just sits on top of the Piston , the small groove is a lining up mark to let you know that the piston is central.
Regards
Mike B

[woodturner-fran]

So hold on then, they way it should work is that the switch is "made" all the time but "opens" when it drops into the groove?

As far as I remember, I reckoned mine should be the other way around as it was wired: ie when I unscrewed the switch a bit the lights went out. OK, I will have to go back at this and try it out again.

My switch looks exactly like yours, I will have to measure the length of it, and I know that the switch "switches" ie when I test it for continuity and depress the plunger.

I'll report back.

ps. my window latches arrived today from Charles Ware (ordered them about 2 months ago I suppose) look ok, but at £27.50 for a pair they'd want to work well!

Fran