MTFCA Forum

Is there a way you can make a homemade shim out of (something) for a Motometer? Lately, ours has not lined up straight, and has a tendency to vibrate loose very quickly. What material could you use? Thank you!

Austin, I, like many others share your pain! I ended up starting out with the neoprene gasket, then adding various numbers of the old fashioned cardboard gaskets the vendors also sell. I also found that using teflon tape on the threads really helps, even if it it isn't "period correct"!

Buy a half dozen of the cardboard gaskets (only .40 ea. from Lang’s and put enough into the neck to allow you to tighten the motometer enough to position it to the front and tight enough to keep it from vibrating loose. I have 4 of the gaskets in mine. It won’t work loose if you tighten it tight enough. Jim Patrick

I have a rubber gasket plus one card board gasket, which worked for me. Never a problem since.

Art Mirtes

I go to the hardware store and get a neoprene gasket made for a sink drain. They usually have one which fits just right. It is soft enough that I can usually line up the motometer with just a little pressure on the cap to seal. If it is not facing the right way, then just one or two thin gaskets made of gasket paper on top of the neoprene one.
Norm

Do you have wings or a dog bone ? I use an o-ring + a gasket or two to line up the cap to the radiator quite snug then I loosen the motometer nut and twist it ever so slightly towards the driver's side and snug it back up.

Mine came with 2 thicknesses of rubber gaskets made from inner tubes

RajoRacer wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 06, 2022 11:05 am

Do you have wings or a dog bone ? I use an o-ring + a gasket or two to line up the cap to the radiator quite snug then I loosen the motometer nut and twist it ever so slightly towards the driver's side and snug it back up.

Our car has a dogbone.

My Grandpa made some homemade ones, I wonder if I can find some of those somewhere. He used some sort of yellow plastic. Sorry I do not have any pictures.

One has wings, the other two have dog bones. However the one with wings got too hot and got stuck all the way at the top, and I can't get it down. So one of my 3 cars has just a standard cap now.
Norm

My son came home with a 6" long, 2" diameter red Nolethane boat trailer roller one day. Some time later I discovered that it was the diameter of the T radiator neck. I chucked it in the lathe, and using a common garden variety hacksaw, cut some washers by rotating the roller ans sawing at the same time. Naturally they come at different thicknesses. If one does not suit, another will, but they will also take a deal of crush, so aligning mascots is not a problem.
Eventually, they crack from the centre hole outwards, and after about 3 years they need to be replaced. The small centre hole allows the washer to be pulled out with a crooked finger.

Allan from down under.

25 Touring
A good material to make Motometer gaskets is pieces cut out of a Purex or Clorox bottle. Prestone antifreeze bottles work good to. Farm fix as some would but they do work.

I use a radiator hose the same diameter as the radiator neck.
You can make it as thick as is needed ( cut with a utility knife) to get the motometer to sit correctly and the hose is usually reinforced with canvas or similar and the rubber is more than able to cope with the temperatures involved and you will have replacements anytime you need one depending on the length of the hose.

I wold like to thank you all for the ideas for I'm sure what is a very common problem.

Probably just end up making one of each!

I buy these at any hardware store. I think they work better than the gaskets.
I assume Art and Norm use one similar.

DHort wrote: ↑

Fri Oct 07, 2022 12:22 pm

I buy these at any hardware store. I think they work better than the gaskets.
I assume Art and Norm use one similar.

moto2 (2).jpg
moto2 (1).jpg

YES, These work very well.

There it is Dave! I didn't remember what it was for.
Works just right here too. A slight compression that I always worry about but the dog-bone never moves.

I just went to my Home Depot and bought two. $1.88 each. THANKS! bobt