just got car running but temp gauge isnt working need wiring help so i dont blow it!

my temperature guage isnt working and i tried to ground out the wire with the funky end that connects to the stud on the cooland temp sensor sending unit on the intake but still doesnt move i swapped out the gauge with a spare working one and still nothing any easy tricks to figure out the problem here and what wires and such to test???
 
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Make sure you pushed on the correct wire, because the oil pressure one is on the same side (looks the same too). Also, if you're using the wrong wire it will read on the oil gauge.



Fred
 
its the one on the intake

its the one on the intake no the one going to that little round type thing for the oil pressure i just dont know where to test and i already replaced the coolant temperature sending unit piece that screws into the intake...
 
Pop off the one on the oil and plug it on the coolant sensor. See if that gives you a reading (it should read just like the temp gauge so the car will have to warm up some). If it does then you have a problem after the sensor to your gauge. Next would be to check for continuity in the wires. If that's good, then I'd wonder about the gauge.



Fred
 
When you had the gauge cluster out, I would have tested the sending unit wire for continuity (Since both ends are exposed at that point). If you have a break in the wire, it can lead to an issue like yours.

EDIT: I was a couple posts slow.
 
If you replace the wire for the coolant gauge with the wire that goes to the oil gauge, the reading will show up on the oil pressure gauge in the car. As long as the oil gauge worked before it should work this time too. This tells you if your sending unit is working. If it works, the next step is....

Get a multimeter and check the coolant wire/original wire from the sending unit to the gauge itself for continuity. This will tell you if the wire is disconnected somewhere. Hopefully you have a better gauge than me and you can set it to beep. If not then you just check it by ohms. If this checks out good, the problem is the gauge.



Fred
 
whats the easiest way to check for continuity since the ends are going to be far apart?

Use jumper wire. There are many configurations but here's how I'd do it:

Connect one end of the jumper wire to the sender wire at the sender. Run the jumper to a DMM lead. Connect the other meter lead to the gauge-side of the sender wire. You've now made a big closed loop with the OEM sender wire, your jumper wire and your DMM meter leads.

Note that you do have to have both ends of the sender wire disconnected to do a continuity test.