Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Classic Morgans (pre-CX) Condensation in dials

Morning all,

After the horrors of the wet Classic Le Mans (where the car performed flawlessly driving there and brilliantly on the first track laps of the day) it seems to have never really dried out.

Once fully warmed through, condensation appears in each and every one of the dials and doesn't disappear. Without dismantling the dash and dials, assuming if water got in, how can I get it out?

It's currently parked under the building I work in, bonnet up and roof off which I am hoping might let some warm vapour ridden air out!

I am starting to get worried about the dial faces being ruined, they are all new

Thoughts? Can silica gel packs pull water out, and should they be left under the bonnet or in the cockpit?

Hi marcos there is an ongoing thread here which may be of interest.

http://www.talkmorgan.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/230490/Clocks_misting_up#Post230490

Terrific, thanks

Guess I should have used the search facility...

I suspect silica gel packs would saturate long before they effected the atmosphere in the dials. Also any benifit would only be temporary.

This is just a theory, not tried it and probably the result of too much time to kill after surgery......OK, been giving this some thought, my grey cells are telling me the cure for condensation is ventilation, if that true how about cutting a union joint into the heater ducting on earlier cars or the heater box on later cars. Thinking a small brass Union with a 1/8" tail, onto which some screen washer tubing could be fitted and with a few washer jet T pieces this could be 'ducted' to each gauge. Either more unions or most probably Araldited in place, if there is a hint of condensation turning on the heater fan would supply a volume of air to each gauge, it would even be possible to incorporate a foam block (think inline micro fuel filter) to filter the air and keep the gauges free from contamination. Quite possibly overkill but that's what happens when my brain gets too much time to play ;-)

The VDO small gauges on my dashboard all showed some evidence of condensation, which no matter how much I tried I could not eradicate. With the vehicle not having seen rain for some considerable time, and being used on some really hot days, the condensation would still reappear almost when it pleased. Even giving the gauges a good seeing to with a heat gun didn't sort it.

I bought a replacement (new) water temperature gauge, which had a couple of inexpertly and very ugly holes already drilled in the body, and this has sorted the problem for that gauge. In the meantime, I searched on the internet for similar occurrences and found that Discos had the same dials, the same issue, and the same fix. One website indicated that this was actually the "official" factory cure.

Once moisture has got into the instruments the only reliable way to get it out is to remove the dials from the dash, take the bulbs out and gently blow warm, dry air in through one of the bulb positions.

The dial needs to lay face down on a warm (37-40C) surface. It will take about a week of a steady flow of dry warm air to rid the unit of all moisture.

Great! I will start tomorrow. Should be ready for spring

Peter I hope you're not expecting next Spring are you?