Moto-meters, T-stat thread

[fritznbud]

This post comes from the thermostat thread i just read. The hood ornament on my A, or some call it a moto-meter, except that it meter's nothing, except the $80 it metered out of my wallet....vintique P.O.S! the tip just came out of a boiling pot of water and after 1 minute, the little red line peeked over the circle....almost warm enough to run sir, is what i heard in my mind as i pictured a boiling radiator for miles and a little red line smiling back at me saying "good to go sir!" So i'm guessing you couldn't get a motor hot enough to ever get a reading out of it. Mac's say they get a 2% defective return on them, and after a couple of months with it, and 30 day return policy, i'll just leer at it as i go cruising until one day i stop, pull out my shiny radiator cap, tear that chi-com lump off and toss it where it belongs. Or make a cheap pocket watch out of it.

[Special Coupe Frank]

My car came with a Vintiques Ford "script" Motometer "junior" size... no red at all, even in a pan of boiling water.

No replacement bulbs either....

Replaced it with a stock cap.

Frankly, I'm not sure I'd be able to see the little red column from behind the wheel anyway...

Would much rather depend on a good bourdon-tube gauge in the cock-pit...

[Bob Johnson]

Sell it to me and I will convert it into an accurate motometer.


Bob

[HoarseWhisperer]

Still would like to find a shop that could repair this Boyce Motometer.

I've sent it to three shops that say they cannot repair it.

[TinCup]

Originally Posted by HoarseWhisperer

Still would like to find a shop that could repair this Boyce Motometer.

I've sent it to three shops that say they cannot repair it.

I have been looking for a working unit like this for 5 years.

[mnherb]

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I recently got a working original junior motometer off Ebay for a very reasonable price. They are out there, but when you are shopping make sure you can just see a bit of red at the bottom of the tube on the picture before buying it. Sometimes the red stuff is bubbled around in two or three places, at the top end of the glass tube, or can't be seen at all in the Ebay pictures - and I am convinced these are junk.

I read once that you can tie a string to those and swing it around in a circle so the centrifugal force will move the red stuff back down to the bottom of the glass tube where it belongs. I have never tried that, but I think it is a bunch of horse puckey. Maybe I am wrong though....

I compared my good original to a repo I had, and there really is no comparison. The red line in the tube on the original is nice and bright and wide and easy to see from different angles. The repo is thin and can only be viewed from one angle, and only if you have a telescope, or maybe tri-focals. And don't even get me started on the quality of the casting, rim screws, wreath trim rings, etc.

The original is the only way to go....I say that...and I got a bargain, but I wonder how much $$ I will have in it by the time I get it replated and looking minty...

[Deluxe Coupe Chris]

How about this Moto Meter.....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...%3AMESELX%3AIT

Be careful what you say because this is my listing.

[mnherb]

Wow that is really cool! Never seen one in that condition and probably never will again. Amazing the original price was $5

[fordman1950]

Very nice, but I would be paranoid about having it sitting out there on my hood worrying about losing it (or breaking it). Probably better to look at on my desk...

[cars56]

I put mine on the shelf where it sits today
Was a battle to keep it from flying off the car, never really fit the neck. I dont know who manufactured it
A purest with no extra gauges so I stick a turkey thermometer in the radiator and get a reading during a stop

[tiquer]

Originally Posted by Bob Johnson

Sell it to me and I will convert it into an accurate motometer.


Bob

Hi sorry don`t mean to steel the thread but is this the same Bob Johnson who drove the Jim Bob A roadster through Prince George B.C. on the way up to Alaska, and used my old coil to get the rest of the way up the trail to Alaska? My shop was in Salmon Valley 20 miles north of Prince George. It was a pleasent surprise when you drove in on the return trip just to give my crappy old coil back. It was very good to meet you then ,perhaps we will meet again never can tell. Live in Kamloops B.C. now in the Okanagan.

[Bob Johnson]

Nope, different Bob

[MrTube]

Is there anything wrong with the reproduction moto-meters? I assume they work no?

[1931 flamingo]

MrTube: re-read 1st post.
Paul in CT

[MrTube]

Originally Posted by 1931 flamingo

MrTube: re-read 1st post.
Paul in CT

Oh I assumed it was a used one, I'm sorry my mistake.

[2manycars]

I no longer buy from Mac's or Vintique.

[Special Coupe Frank]

Looks like yet another example of "old = good, new = bad"....

[MrTube]

Originally Posted by Special Coupe Frank

Looks like yet another example of "old = good, new = bad"....

Not everything new is bad, and not everything old is good. But it does once again prove you cannot assume something is good or even works just because its new.

[Bud]

I once ran across a website where a person restored a Plymouth temperature gauge, much like a Red Ball Motometer, at home. I have the link at my computer at home. When I get home tonight I will try to add it to this thread.

[Special Coupe Frank]

Originally Posted by MrTube

Not everything new is bad, and not everything old is good. But it does once again prove you cannot assume something is good or even works just because its new.

Get back to me on that in 20 years...

Certainly few ( if any) modern items are "overbuilt" the way they were in the early to mid 20th Century...