MGB Register Forum

Has anyone had experience of the various inexpensive replica 'Smiths' gauges on offer . The sub £40 a set ones made in India which are on Amazon and Ebay ?

A popular workaround for instruments when usng an MX5 engine and gearbox in a B is to fit the individual guage innards from a deconstructed MX5 instrument cluster into the B's gauge casings. I'd ideally rather not cannibalise my original MGB Smiths gauges and instead sacrifice a replica set and sell my originals.
Has anyone here seen the replica gauges and think they might do the job ? Accuracy wont be an issue here as the Mazda internals will be doing the heavy lifting

Hi Chris,
I'm sorry i have no experience with the replica "Smiths" gauges.
It would also be a great pity to cannibalise your original gauges as i suspect they are the later versions with black bezels (similar to mine)
& not easy to find good OE examples (used), unlike earlier chrome bezel versions.
Cheers, Charles

I think you are right Charles. I will store my original black bezel gauges and sacrifice a set of the replicas.

Although I have no personal experience of the Indian gauges there have been numerous posts on the MG Ex over the time I have been on the forum. A number have posted that the lettering has not been to the same standard, none that I have read say they are appalling quality or that they didn't work or were inaccurate. One person recently complained about the quality of Caerbont gauges not realising that he had bought the Indian ones. I wouldn't hesitate in using them but I needed an electronic speedometer to go with the Mazda gearbox then sold my black gauges and found some genuine magnolia ones at a bargain price.