Dashboard, Control & Instruments

Aurelia Dashboard Instruments



The following contributed by John Savage, 1980s & I have edited it a little.

• The 1st series B20 had the green & gold instruments similar, if not identical to those used in the B10 saloon & variants, with no revolution counter.
• B20 series 2 & 3 had a large speedo. & Rev counter with thick clear plastic needles & grey dials, incorporating the petrol gauge in the speedo. & oil pressure in the rev counter. Only two warning lights were use: a red ignition light in the rev counter & a single orange lamp in the speedo. for the direction indicators.
• The early B20 4th series used similar Veglia instruments but had two lights for the direction indicators. The speedo & rev. counter needles on the B20 2nd, 3rd& early 4th series turned in opposite directions with the rev. counter going anti-clockwise. This required a reversal of rotation of the drive cable & was done by either adding an extra gearwheel on the drive from the engine or by fitting a small gearbox on the back of the instrument. The latter should be lubricated occasionally, as should the speed. & rev-counter mechanisms.
• Later B20 4th series (from B20-3421) were fitted with Jaeger instruments, which had black dials with white needles, & the two main instruments both rotated clockwise. The speedo incorporated a petrol gauge, which was available in litres or gallons, a clock, two direction indicator lamps & a sidelight & handbrake warning lamp. The rev. counter has an electric radiator thermometer, an oil pressure gauge calibrated in kg/sq.in. & lamps for ignition & low oil pressure. The oil pressure switch is fitted in the pipe to the oil pressure gauge. The Jaeger petrol gauge used in these late B20 4th series instruments was special as it uses a potentiometer type tank unit with two electrical leads to it – the only series to have this type. The Jaeger speedo. & rev. counter although similar to the later series cars have different cable fittings & the oil pressure gauge a different union & are not interchangeable with the later instrument.
• The B20 5th& 6th series also have black Jaeger instruments with white dials but are to a new design & construction. The oil pressure gauge is prone to internal leakage with disastrous results to the driver’s clothing! The 5th& 6th series are not identical – see parts diagram Tav.69 bis.
• The B24 Spider dashboard is quite unlike any of those used on B20s, but the B24 Convertible used the same units as the B20 5th/6th series. Study of the parts books would be advisable if the exact applications to each model were a concern for a rebuilt car.
  

Dashboard & Windscreen area for B10 (Tav.68 SI)

Instruments & Controls for Right-hand Drive B10, B21, B15, B22 & B50 to 53

Instruments & Controls for Left-hand Drive B10S, B21S, B15S, B22S & B50S to 53S

Instruments & Controls for B12

Dashboard & Windscreen area for B12 (Tav.69 SII)

Instruments & Controls for B12 Right-hand Drive

Instruments & Controls for B12S Left-hand Drive

B20 1st Series 1001 to 1500

B20 2nd Series 1501 to 2231

B20 3rd Series 2232 to 2951

A set of 3rd Series Instruments - no oil pressure warning light and only one direction indicator warning light.

B20 4th Series 2952 to 3421 & B20S-1001 to 1130

From Early 4th Italian Instruction Book Stampato 001142 (IV-1954-1000) – Figure 2a for a Left-hand drive car

Note that this series of cars was the first produced in right-hand & left-hand drive.

The cars had Veglia/Borletti counter-rotating main instruments, which had slightly more components than the similar 3rd series instruments. Also note the different radio aperture cover & the control knobs mounted at the bottom of the dashboard. The oil pressure gauge contains an integral switch to control the low-pressure warning light on the dash. The 3rd series has an earlier version of the same unit, without the contact for the warning light.

B20 4th Series 3421 to 3696 & B20S-1131 to 1255

B20 5th Series 3697 to 3816 & B20S-1256 to 1435

B20 5th & 6th Series Dash board & Windscreen area (Tav.69 bis SII)

B20 5th Series 3697 to 3816: Right-hand drive

B20 5th Series B20S-1256 to 1435: Left-hand drive

B20 6th Series 3817 to 4011: Right-hand drive

B20 6th Series B20S-1435 to 1860: Left-hand drive

B24 Spider 4th Series 1001 to 1059: Right-hand drive

B24 Spider 4th Series 1001 to 1059: Right-hand drive

B24 Spider Dash board & Windscreen area



Left-hand drive car shown

(Tav.69 III – SII)

B24S Convertible 5th& 6th Series: Left-hand drive

Tachometer Drive for Revolution Counter

A tachometer was fitted from the B20 2nd series (B20-1501) & was driven by rotating cable from a gearbox attached to the oil pump/distributor drive at the upper, rear of the engine. Tav.18 in the B20 section of the Series I parts book refers to the parts & the B10 section shows the oil pump/distributor drive set up, but without the extra parts for the tachometer. The complete oil pump was changed for the 3rd series B20 but the tachometer drive seems to have been the same for B20 2nd& 3rd series with their anti-clockwise needle motion.

The gearbox shown in Tav. 8bis below was fitted from the 4th series cars B20-3511 & B20S-1161 as these later models had clockwise motion for their Jaeger tachometers.

From Aurelia B20-3511& B20S-1161, also B24/B24S – Tachometer Drive (Tav. 8 bis II-SII) for cars with the clockwise Jaeger instruments. Earlier cars did not have parts #7 & #10 etc.



For the last few cars from B20-3932 & B20S-1701 plus late B24S, the tachometer drive housing #16 was changed along with part #1, & parts #5 & #8 were replaced with different parts. Also the tachometer drive cable was changed (see pages above showing the dashboard & instruments).

The extra gear pinion #10 results in clockwise motion of the cable drive #1

The tachometer instrument on the dashboard varies from model to model.

Oil Pressure Gauges

The parts books for B20 1st to early 4th series cars show four different Borletti/Veglia pressure gauges.  I think the 1st series must be the same as a B10.

B20 2nd and 3rd series have pressure gauges but no warning lamp and the gauges have different part numbers – the 2nd series one is Borletti Mn 301 and the 3rd is Mn 303. The number is stamped on the cover of the instrument.

Borletti Gauges with Internal Warning Light Switch - Models Mn-351, Mn-352, Mn-361 and Mn-361/A

The B12 and early 4th series (according to the parts book and the wiring diagrams fromvarious sources) has a Borletti/Veglia pressure gauge and a warning light. The gauge has an electrical terminal on the back which is attached to an earth wire from the body of the warning lamp, and which, inside the gauge, is connected to a contact which at zero pressure goes to electrical earth & causes the warning light to come on.  The other, insulated terminal of the warning light is connected to other warning lights and powered from the fuse-board.

As the pressure rises there is no contact inside the gauge and the light goes off.

In getting the earthed circuit to work inside the gauge I had to open it up and found that the brass foil switch was slightly corroded and not making a good contact.

Cleaning the surfaces helped but in order not to bend the foil contact too much I carefully added a blob of solder, and this produced a good contact. However, eventually the brass contact is going to fatigue and will have no spring and will require replacing. This will involve drilling out the rivet securing it to the body of the gauge and replacing the brass contact.

It is essential that there is a good earth from the cover and mounting studs/nuts to the case of the main instrument and car earth.

Borletti Mn-303, with no low oil pressure warning lamp, may have a serial no. e.g. 2128414 on the ex-Nigel Trow example shown below.

Oil Pressure Light Sender for cars from B20-3421 from B20S-1131, from B24S-1182

The sender is a Jaeger part 3001/01/100, Lancia part 2131509 and is fitted to the 3-way union with washer 2057229.

No rubber dust cover is specified for the 4th series, but Jaeger 66944, Lancia 2131510 is listed for the 5th series on

The sender is mounted near the fuse-box onto a 3-way union (2131348 Jaeger 4220), which is fixed to the body with a bolt (3342271), nut (3411331) and washer (3541129). The union threads appear to be 9 x 1.0 mm.

The oil tubes either side of the union are of course different from the earlier cars