I've been playing around with MicroSquirt3 Temperature Sender alternatives because I wanted to delete the external plumbing I used to rig up the standard GM Temp Sender (p/n 15326386 ) on my 9A install. I had all sorts of brass plumbing hooked together to form a "tee" that was inserted in my unused heater core hoses.
I wanted to plug the GM sensor into the 9A head in place of the thermo-time switch (not used in my setup). That hole is an M14x1.5 thread. I considered drilling the hole larger and tapping it to 3/8NPT for the GM Sensor but didn't have a scrap head to try it in, and I'm not real comfortable drilling into any head with the tools I own.
After talking with a machinist friend, he said he wanted to try to turn down my GM sensor on a lathe and see if there was enough metal left to cut sturdy threads. I figured it would be worth the $20 for a new sensor to find out.
The result is... PERFECT! There is plenty of metal on the GM sender housing to turn it down and cut M14x1.5 threads, and a relief for the crush washer. I had him use the VW Thermo-Time sender as a model because the threaded depth of the hole in the 9A head is less than you'd think and I didn't want to bottom out the threads before I got a good seal at the outer end. The GM sender is also 9/16" shorter than the VW Thermo-Time sender, but looking in the hole you can see the end of the GM sensor will be immersed in water in the jacket.
He's cutting a second one down today for a spare.
This works for me. Cleaned up my MicroSquirt install for a price I was willing to pay.
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I wanted to plug the GM sensor into the 9A head in place of the thermo-time switch (not used in my setup). That hole is an M14x1.5 thread. I considered drilling the hole larger and tapping it to 3/8NPT for the GM Sensor but didn't have a scrap head to try it in, and I'm not real comfortable drilling into any head with the tools I own.
After talking with a machinist friend, he said he wanted to try to turn down my GM sensor on a lathe and see if there was enough metal left to cut sturdy threads. I figured it would be worth the $20 for a new sensor to find out.
The result is... PERFECT! There is plenty of metal on the GM sender housing to turn it down and cut M14x1.5 threads, and a relief for the crush washer. I had him use the VW Thermo-Time sender as a model because the threaded depth of the hole in the 9A head is less than you'd think and I didn't want to bottom out the threads before I got a good seal at the outer end. The GM sender is also 9/16" shorter than the VW Thermo-Time sender, but looking in the hole you can see the end of the GM sensor will be immersed in water in the jacket.
He's cutting a second one down today for a spare.
This works for me. Cleaned up my MicroSquirt install for a price I was willing to pay.
